


Certainty

by Kioee



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Awkward Romance, Boss/Employee Relationship, M/M, Original Characters used to enhance plot, Sometimes everyone thinks joey is a prostitute, Wacky Misunderstanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:21:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25476052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kioee/pseuds/Kioee
Summary: After Kaiba fires an employee for making an inappropriate comment about his sex life, Mokuba enlists the help of the Human Resources Manager along with Kaiba's secretary of finding someone to give Kaiba a sex life at all. Of course, he can't let his brother know what his real plan is, so a legitimate looking wanted ad is posted.Joey Wheeler just needed a job, and when he sees an ad asking for people willing to do anything, including wearing costumes, he swallows his pride and applies to work at Kaiba Corp.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Comments: 75
Kudos: 231





	1. Just Another Manic Monday

It started in the morning. Mokuba could only describe his brother’s actions as having gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. That was putting it mildly, anyway. Kaiba stomped downstairs and into the kitchen. He was showered and dressed for the day and by now would usually be settled into a slight frown rather than the deep scowl on his face.

Without a word, he got to work starting breakfast. Mokuba passed him the coffee pot to pour water into the machine. It was a simple task, but some splashed out the side from Kaiba pouring too aggressively. He made a noise of displeasure, but moved on to grab the tub of coffee. When he opened the lid, he grunted before opening drawers and slamming them with increasing intensity.

Mokuba pulled the scoop out of the sink and washed it before handing it to his brother who snatched it up. He measured out the grounds into the filter, careful to be less aggressive than he had been with the water and slid the filter into the machine before pressing the start button.

Nothing happened.

Kaiba hit the button again and again nothing happened. He kept hitting it before letting out a scream. “If you don’t start working in the next thirty seconds, I’m going to take you apart and drag your manufacturer’s name through the mud until they’re begging for mercy in the pits of bankruptcy!”

“Big brother?” Mokuba said, holding the end of the power cord. “It’s not plugged in.”

Kaiba let out a growl as he snatched the cord and plugged it in. While they waited for the coffee to brew, Kaiba tossed a few slices of bread into the toaster. Mokuba blended a couple of smoothies, so they could have something more substantial on the go. When the coffee was brewed, he put them in their travel mugs. Plenty of cream and sugar for Mokuba, and black for Kaiba.

The toast popped up, somehow having burned half the slice and leaving the other half untoasted at all. With a roar, Kaiba ripped the toaster out of the outlet and threw it out the window. He then got up, grabbed his briefcase, and stormed toward the front door.

Mokuba scrambled to get all of his papers together as his brother gave no indication he’d be waiting for him. This was despite there still being an hour before they had to be at Kaiba Corp. Mokuba grabbed his half-burnt toast and quickly followed out of the mansion.

When they walked into the building, Kaiba grumbled that there was nobody manning the desk in the lobby.

“Big brother,” Mokuba started, quietly, “His shift doesn’t start for another thirty minutes.”

Kaiba glared. “That’s no excuse,” he said, and Mokuba coughed to cover a laugh. Kaiba looked down at his brother who just smiled. His smile was quickly replaced with a sigh as Kaiba stormed into the elevator. Mokuba decided to set up the welcome lobby station before the staff got there. It was one thing for one of the Kaiba brothers to come early and start walking around the building, but someone should be ready to monitor any other early arrivals just in case. Security at the doors did a pretty good job of weeding out anyone who wasn’t supposed to be there, but Mokuba decided his brother needed some space.

Once the desk was properly manned and people started filing in, Mokuba made his way up to his own office to get some work done before the board meeting. It was in a couple hours and Mokuba hoped the numbers he had prepared for projected sales would bring some optimism to his brother and maybe get him to calm down a little.

The board meeting did not go well. Due to some issues in the market, Kaiba Corp stock was down 2% in the last quarter. Kaiba pulled up reports and threw papers at the board members demanding an explanation for falling behind. There was no excuse for not reaching perfection, and dammit if Kaiba wasn’t going to try and fix it himself instead of letting the idiots who worked for him screw things up even further. 

It was normal for Kaiba to demand the best from his employees, and he had fired people for small offenses that didn’t fit his standards. Still, Mokuba watched his older brother during this tirade and noted he came across harsher than usual. This morning’s sour mood had not improved in the slightest. The stress of the quarterly reports had apparently affected him particularly hard recently. Mokuba knew his brother couldn’t sit back and let his employees do their jobs to turn this around. His stress level would just keep rising and he’d overwork himself as usual.

Others took note of his exceptionally grumpy demeanor. Most just avoided eye contact, unsure whether even looking at their boss the wrong way would get them sent packing. However, one of the board members just scoffed and rolled his eyes. The small noise was so insignificant, but it couldn’t escape Kaiba’s notice. “Something you’d like to say, Hemmings?”

Blake Hemmings, junior VP to the CIO, tipped back in his seat and grinned. “Sounds like someone needs to get laid.” 

A stillness settled over the conference room. Even the air vents seemed to have the sense to refrain from making a sound. Blake, however, held his reports up and began rifling through them, business as usual. Suddenly, the papers were snatched from his hand, Kaiba’s face looming close, eyes narrowed. “You’re fired. Get out of here,” Kaiba said in a low growl.

Blake raised an eyebrow. “Over a stupid joke?”

Kaiba pointed toward the door and raised his voice.”Get out, now!”

“Jeez, okay,” Blake said, getting out of his chair and holding up his hands defensively. 

“This meeting is over,” Kaiba announced and no one needed to be told twice to gather their things and leave the room.

Mokuba sighed. He’d just have to give his report to his brother later. He hurried over to Kaiba. “I’ll go with Hemmings to HR to get the paperwork done.” Kaiba just nodded, waving Mokuba away with one hand and massaging his temples with the other. 

Mokuba jogged out the door and caught up with Blake. “You’ll need to fill out some paperwork with Human Resources.” Blake didn’t speak. We need to make sure we have all the necessary information for the severance package.”

Blake’s silence didn’t put Mokuba at ease, but at least it looked like he was walking in the right direction. They turned the corner to the Human Resources office and Blake plopped himself in the chair in front of the desk without a word. The HR director, Jeanine Monroe, barely looked up from her computer work. “How may I help you?”

Continued silence from Blake prompted Mokuba to explain the problem. “Mr. Hemmings spoke inappropriately in a board meeting, violating the company’s sexual harassment policy.”

Jeanine looked away from her computer to give Blake a glance over. “I see,” she simply stated before turning back to her computer, rapidly clicking and typing. After a moment the printer whirred to life spitting out a single piece of paper which Jeanine handed to Blake. “For violating the sexual harassment policy, you’ll receive no severance, but this sheet should be satisfactory should you wish to collect unemployment.”

“Excuse the fuck out of me?” Blake was no longer silent. “I dedicate years, years to this company and I get tossed out for one offhand remark?”

Jeanine raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips. “Funny how one slip up can cost you.”

Blake snatched the paper and cursed a more before making his way to the door. Jeanine continued to look unfazed by the outburst, having gone back to focusing on her computer. Mokuba stared at Blake, hand slipping into his pocket for his phone in case he needed to call security. It wouldn’t be the first time they needed to have someone escorted out of the building, but Mokuba didn’t like having to do it.

Blake opened the door to the office just as a banging noise rang out through the hallway and all three people in the room jumped. Kaiba’s looming presence stomped down the hallway. “Whoever designed the walls like this needs to be fired!”

Letting out a derisive laugh, Blake exited the room and called out after Kaiba, “Proving my point there! You just need to stick it in something, blow off some steam!”

Kaiba wheeled around getting in Blake’s face. “Get out of my building now, before I have security do it for you.”

Blake shook off Kaiba’s threat and made his way to the elevator, while Kaiba continued his way back to his office. Mokuba turned to look back at Jeanine. “Don’t you hate it when people act like that?” Mokuba asked.

Jeanine shrugged. “Some are angrier. I don’t let things like that get to me.” She paused to look up at Mokuba. “Mr. Kaiba usually isn’t that angry, though. It’s strange.”

Frowning, Mokuba mulled over everything that had been going on the last few days. His brother was under a lot more stress than usual and didn’t seem to have a good outlet for it. “Do you think he has a point?”

“Mr. Hemmings?” Jeanine asked with a small laugh. “Well, he was a bit crass, and probably shouldn’t be shouting that kind of thing at a man who can make sure he never gets a job in Domino again.” She gave a noncommittal shrug. “But sex can be beneficial to blood flow and the release of hormones that can reduce stress. Why?”

“Sometimes I wonder if my brother’s lonely.” It had been just the two of them for so long, and though Mokuba liked to think he was good company, he wasn’t sure that his brother really wanted to hang around a fifteen-year-old all the time. It was possible he needed someone he could just, as Blake had said, blow off steam with.

“You want to set him up on a date,” Jeanine said, with a hint of mocking in her tone. 

Mokuba shot her an unamused look, but considered her words. Imagining his brother trying to date someone was absurd. He sighed. “No, maybe just… a companion?”

“So, someone you pay to make someone a little less lonely?” Jeanine replied with an even more amused tone than before.

Mokuba gave a shrug. “Why not? We could ask for resumes to weed out anyone we don’t think he’d like. Word the ad in a way that we could pass it off as a personal assistant position since the actual job isn’t as legal as you’d normally hire for.”

Giving it just a moment’s consideration, Jeanine nodded nonchalantly. “Why not? It’s kind of crazy, but so is your brother.” She clicked a few more things and picked up her phone.

“Hi, yes, can you come to my office? Thanks.” Jeanine smiled at Mokuba. “We’ll want to let Mr. Kaiba’s secretary know what’s going on so that she doesn’t think we’re trying to infringe on her job.”

Mokuba nodded. “Good idea.”

A few moments later Kaiba’s secretary, Hana Takemura, walked in. A look of fear flashed on her face as she saw both Jeanine and Mokuba in the office. Jeanine smiled. “Have a seat Miss Takemura.”

“You’re not in trouble,” Mokuba added. “This is about my brother.”

Hana laughed nervously. “Is this anything to do with the fact that he told me to hold all calls for the rest of the day before slamming his office door?” 

Mokuba looked a little sheepish. She had to deal with Kaiba’s sour moods a lot and Mokuba always felt the need to apologize. “Yeah. In a way.”

Leaning over, Jeanine calmly stated, “We think Mr. Kaiba needs to relieve stress by engaging in, to put it delicately, certain physical acts.”

“Oh, I will not be doing that,” Hana said immediately.

“No, no!” said Mokuba, waving his hands. “We’re looking to hire a, um, personal assistant.”

“Very personal,” Jeanine added.

Hana looked between the two of them. “You’re serious.”

“I know it sounds ridiculous,” Jeanine said.

“But it would be good for him, really,” Mokuba finished. “We just didn’t want you to think we were hiring someone to encroach on your duties.”

Hana nodded. “Thank you.” She looked pensive for a moment. “What can I do to help?”

After a quick text to his brother that Hana was working on a project with HR. The three of them got to work marking up the ad to sound professional, but with certain wording that would attract who they were trying to get. 

“Not to be indelicate,” said Hana, “but what is Mr. Kaiba’s, erm, preference?”

That wasn’t something Mokuba had considered. Kaiba’s reputation was one that didn’t lend much to thinking about interpersonal relationships. His brother hadn’t mentioned any attraction to anyone, but Mokuba thought about everyone he’d interacted with. “Men.”

The two women nodded with understanding and continued working on the ad.

Certain websites with certain reputations were happy to host the ad, and before they knew it, plenty of resumés were coming in. For legitimacy, Jeanine posted on a couple of the regular job board websites without the gender preference listed, giving them an hour to be posted before expiring them.

Over the next few days they split up the resumés and made calls to promising candidates to set up interviews. They’d pulled a few women, so as not to raise suspicion, but they managed to schedule all the interviews for the same day. Mokuba decided that day was the best day to tell his brother what they were up to.

“We’re going to hire a personal assistant for you,” he said casually on the ride to Kaiba Corp.

“Why,” asked Kaiba, jaw clenched.

Mokuba rolled his eyes. “You could use the extra help.” With a scowl he added, “And don’t pretend you don’t.”

Kaiba closed his mouth, thinking for a few moments before asking, “What’s the point of my secretary, then?”

“The personal assistant position has different duties than your secretary.” He slumped back in his seat. “I’ll show you the ad we put out when we get to the office.”

Kaiba nodded. “I’ll be doing the interviews.”

“Big brother,” Mokuba started to complain, but Kaiba held up a hand.  
“It’s my personal assistant. I’ll have to like them,” he reasoned.

That was a fair enough point, and Mokuba supposed if they were going to try and get whoever was hired to seduce Kaiba, that person should probably be picked by Kaiba. The situation was delicate enough as it was, keeping the prostitution angle hidden, making it more difficult by hiring someone Kaiba might end up hating wasn’t a risk they should be taking.

“Okay, but there are quite a few,” Mokuba said. “You should have us do some preliminary interviews to weed some out.”

“Fine,” Kaiba agreed.

Once they made it into the building, Kaiba went to his office and Mokuba started setting things up for the interviews. He touched base with Hana and Jeanine about the change of plans, and they agreed that it made sense for Kaiba to at least meet these people. When it was closer to the start of the interviews, the candidates filed into the employee lounge, free to enjoy coffee and snacks as they waited their turn. Mokuba greeted them each as they came in.

He stopped dead, hand lowered slowly as one of the candidates walked in the room, greeting him with a bright smile. “Hey, Mokuba! Long time no see.”

Mokuba hung his mouth open in disbelief. “Joey?”


	2. What A Way To Make A Living

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joey has his interview with Kaiba and swiftly starts his first day

Mokuba couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Joey Wheeler was the last person he expected to show up. He’d be shocked to see him show up for a regular position, but was Joey really that desperate for money that he had resorted to selling himself. Mokuba shook off the thought. He was trying to hire a prostitute, after all. There wasn’t any room for judgement. Still, seeing Joey threw him off guard. 

Joey laughed a little and Mokuba realized he’d just been staring. “Come on in and help yourself to coffee,” he offered, regaining his composure.

“Thanks,” Joey said as he walked over to the snack bar. There was a glint of excitement in his eyes, but he calmly took a small plate and sat at one of the tables. Mokuba gave up his greeting duties and sat by Joey.

“I wasn’t expecting you here,” he said, bluntly.

Joey laughed again. “I bet. Especially for this job and everything it entails.”

Mokuba nodded slowly. “So this is something you want to do?”

After looking around, Joey leaned in and whispered, “This ain’t part of the interview, right?”

“No, I’m just curious.”

Joey nodded. “Well, it’s not exactly my passion, but I think I’ve got the skills for it, and I could use the extra cash.” He glanced around again. “And I figured since Kaiba already knows me, he’d be a little more comfortable with it.”

That made a lot of sense. Mokuba still needed a moment to process all of it. His brother would probably laugh Joey right out the door, anyway. It wouldn’t hurt to see what happened if they moved Joey onto interviewing with Kaiba.

“I’m not askin’ for any special treatment just because you guys know me, though.”

“Of course not,” Mokuba said. He flashed Joey a cheeky grin. “You still need to convince my brother, you’re right for the job.”

“You know I like a challenge,” Joey countered.

The two of them laughed and let a calm settle between them. Mokuba looked at his watch. “I’ve gotta go start the actual interviews with the others.” They waved after each other and Mokuba got up to meet with Jeanine and Hana before splitting the interviews.

Throughout them, Mokuba thought he found some good candidates. He sent each of the more promising ones to go interview directly with his brother, making it clear that this was a delicate situation. Everyone seemed to understand, and with each progressive candidate, Mokuba got more anxious. Joey wasn’t exactly known for his subtlety and class. 

Maybe sending him in for an interview with his brother was a bad idea.

Mokuba looked at the paper to see whether Hana or Jeanine was scheduled to interview Joey. It looked like he had about a half hour before Hana would interview him, so he made his way to the office she was using. He knocked to announce his presence before opening the door. She and her interviewee stopped and looked at Mokuba.

“Sorry for the interruption, but can I talk to you for a moment Miss Takemura.”

She nodded and excused herself, closing the door behind her. “What’s up?”

“When you get to Joey Wheeler on your list, don’t push him through to my brother,” he answered. “He’s a good guy, but he and my brother have this history and Joey really isn’t great at handling things with any sort of delicacy so it’s probably just better to just thank him for his time instead of wasting it any more so he can find a new client.”

The look on Hana’s face didn’t give Mokuba a lot of confidence. She bit her lip and avoided eye contact. “Mokuba,” she started quietly. “I’m ahead of schedule,” she said. Mokuba stared at her as the realization dawned on him. “Mr. Wheeler is already in Mr. Kaiba’s office.”  
Joey was pleased that he made a good impression on Kaiba’s secretary. He had seen that not everyone got to move on to the second step of the interview process. He grinned and giggled to himself for a moment before knocking on the office door.

“Come in,” Kaiba growled.

Joey stepped into the massive office - seriously who needed this big of an office - and looked at Kaiba. He was sitting at his desk and Joey could see the tension in his jaw. He had his elbows leaning on his desk with his fingers rubbing his temples.

“You look like you’re having a great day, Kaiba,” Joey said before he could stop himself. That was not professional at all, and he was sure he just blew his chances.

Kaiba startled and looked up. “Wheeler?”

“Yeah, Mokuba was surprised, too.” They stared at each other for a moment before Joey shifted his feet. “Should I sit down?”

Kaiba looked at Joey a moment longer, before most of the tension drained from his face, relaxing into an expression of complete neutrality. He gestured at the chair in front of his desk and Joey sat. “So are you going to wink at me, or try some pick up line on me, too?”

Joey raised his eyebrows. “Why would I do something like that?”

Kaiba scoffed. “It seems like every applicant to this position has decided to take it upon themselves to jump at the chance of some sort of office romance.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” Joey said with a laugh. “I’m here for a job and I’m going to keep it professional.” He pulled a paper out of his back pocket. “I brought a physical copy of my resume, in case you don’t have the digital pulled up.”

Kaiba snatched the resume without a word and looked it over. It looked like Joey was well-suited to a personal assistant position. He’d worked plenty of jobs that amounted to him playing errand boy. From what he remembered, Joey had worked all through high school, and while he was sure his grades were never going to make him valedictorian, he did graduate and rarely missed a day of school. 

“Solid work ethic,” Kaiba stated after he finished reading the resume.

“And you already know I can handle it when you’re mean to me,” Joey quipped.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “I recall you trying to throw a punch at me before.”

Joey chuckled. “I just didn’t know you that well yet.” He puffed up his chest. “I’ve done a lot of maturing since we first met.”

Kaiba sighed. “You’re honestly the first normal person here and I’m tired of doing interviews.”

“Wait so that means…?”

Kaiba waved a hand dismissively. “Go see HR about the paperwork. Be here tomorrow at seven in the morning.”

Joey stood up with a huge grin on his face. “Thank you!” he said, all but skipping out of the door.  
The phone rang in Mokuba’s office, and he looked down to see his brother’s extension on it. Great. He would probably give him an earful for even allowing Joey in the building in the first place.

“Yes, big brother?” He tried to sound completely neutral.

“Wheeler’s hired. Go meet him in HR to discuss his salary.” The phone clicked signaling the end of the call. Mokuba sat, stunned for a moment, before he leapt out of his seat to run down the hallway. There was no way his brother had actually hired _Joey Wheeler_.

He reached the office just as Joey was rounding the corner. Mokuba flashed him a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, his mind still in panic mode. When they walked in together Jeanine looked amused as she gestured for them to sit down.

“Congratulations are in order, I see,” she said as she pulled up the paperwork on her computer.

Joey nodded. “Guess I made a good impression,” he said.

Jeanine cleared her throat and Mokuba laughed nervously. Joey didn’t seem to notice the awkwardness hanging over the room, still basking in the glow of his accomplishment. Mokuba looked at Jeanine, not sure how to handle this situation now that they got to this point. He didn’t want to go into details about what Joey may or may not do. It was better to let his brother deal with that when they got to it.

“So what’s your hourly rate?” he asked, breaking the silence.

Joey looked thoughtful for a moment. “I was thinking probably twenty and hour.”

Jeanine raised an eyebrow and glanced at Mokuba who shrugged. “That seems a little low,” she said.

“Well, maybe twenty-five since it is with the CEO,” Joey said with a laugh. “It’s a lot steadier work than I’m used to, so I figure if it’s spread out like a normal job, rather than a flat rate for a one and done sort of deal that would make more sense.”

That made a lot of sense. It also had the added benefit of looking a lot more legitimate if Kaiba ever glanced at the payroll. That was pretty smart thinking on Joey’s part. Mokuba was a little impressed. Maybe this wouldn’t be a disaster after all.

“He wants me here at seven tomorrow morning,” Joey said with a slight grimace. “I’ll have to get used to the morning shift.” He laughed before adding, “I’m used to working nights.”

Jeanine nodded. “I’ve got the paperwork all sorted out, along with the standard non-compete, non-disclosure clause. You just need to sign.” She handed Joey the contract as it came out of the printer. He signed, barely looking at the document, and Jeanine took the papers and handed him an ID badge. 

Mokuba stood up. “Well, I guess we’ll see you bright and early,” he said. 

“Looking forward to it.” Joey also stood and shook hands with Jeanine and Mokuba.

As he walked out the door, Mokuba had an idea. “Hey, my brother is already a morning person, but maybe you can make his morning extra special.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Joey said. “I think I know just what will perk him up.

Mokuba tried not to cringe after Joey said that, avoiding the mental image. “I’m sure you’ll do great,” he said.  
The next morning, a gentle ray of sunlight filtered through the blinds, casting rippled shadows across Joey’s face. It was a peaceful scene until the screeching alarm echoed throughout his bedroom. He swung his arm out, knocking his alarm clock on the floor. He cursed as it kept ringing. Reluctantly, he slid out of bed willing his body to move to the bathroom so he could shower. He bent over and turned off the alarm, groaning at the early time.

Still, he knew he had to get a move on. He turned the shower to cold water, hoping the shock to his system would help wake him up. It did, a little, and it was easier to get ready after that. Before he left, he brought out his espresso maker, going for the “extra special” morning Mokuba has suggested. It wasn’t much, but Joey didn’t know a lot about Kaiba besides that he hated losing. That and he was in a perpetually bad mood, he would do anything for Mokuba, he had a hard time growing up, his favorite card was Blue Eyes, and he did a lot of charity work to help orphans. So, Joey though, he did know quite a bit about Kaiba. 

It didn't matter. The coffee was done, and he had to get going. He rushed out the door and hopped on his bike. The advantage of being out so early was the decrease in traffic. It was before rush hour so there were only a few other people out and about.

When he got to the building, he showed his ID badge to the security guard outside, and was let in. He took note of the fact that it had the same picture from his government ID and laughed a little. Of course Kaiba would have that level of efficiency. Mokuba was at the desk in the lobby and waved at him.

“He’s already up in his office,” Mokuba said in lieu of a greeting. “Better hurry.”

“Morning to you, too,” Joey said with a smile as he hurried to the elevator. Yesterday there had been people manning the elevators, swiping their badges to get to the higher floors and leading the candidates to the right place. Joey figured his badge would get him where he needed to be and the scanner flashed green before sending him up to the top floor where Kaiba’s office was located.

He walked down the hallway and found the office door open. Taking that as a sign, he walked right in. “Morning, boss,” he said, with only a hint of irony in his voice.

Kaiba looked up at him. “What’s that?” he said, nodding to the cups in Joey’s hands. 

“Coffee,” he said. “Espresso.” Joey held out the cup, hoping that Kaiba liked it. He seemed like a black coffee kind of guy, so Joey hadn’t added any flavorings to his cup.

Kaiba took a sip and let out a noise that may have sounded neutral to most people, but Joey recognized it as approval. He looked up again. “Where’d you get this?” he asked. “It doesn’t taste like any of the shops in the area.”

“I made it.”

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “You made it?” He lifted the cup. “You made this?”

“Yeah,” Joey said, annoyance in his voice. “I got some extra cash from my last birthday and splurged on a nice espresso maker.” 

“It’s good.” Kaiba said and took another sip.

Joey grinned. “And if you like your coffee any kind of way I have different flavorings and stuff.”

Going back to his keyboard, Kaiba grunted. “Surprise me.”

He turned momentarily to pull a paper off the printer. “Here’s your to do list for the day,” he said, not looking at Joey as he held it out. Joey took it and looked it over. There was a lot of stuff on here. “Ask Miss Takemura if you need any clarification on any tasks.”

“Will do.” Joey wasn’t sure he’d be able to get through all of this stuff.

“Can you drive?” Kaiba asked, and Joey pulled his eyes up from the paper.

He shifted in his spot. “Uh, I’ve got a license but I don’t have a car or anything.”

“You can use a company car. Use your badge to unlock the keybox in the garage.” That was simple enough. Joey would definitely need it for a lot of these tasks that had him going all over the city.

Kaiba looked up from his screen again. “Most of these places aren’t open yet. You can start by calling this airline. They need to arrange a time for me to land at their gate next time I travel to San Francisco.” He rifled around a desk drawer and tossed Joey a cell phone.

“Got it,” he said after fumbling to catch the phone. It wouldn’t look good if he let it drop straight to the floor.  
Not sure exactly where he was supposed to be, he elected to sit on one of the couches and get to work on some of the things he could knock out before driving places.  
The day never seemed to end. Between the phone calls - and being put on hold - and driving around Domino City on the lengthy list of errands Kaiba had tasked him with, Joey was exhausted. At the end of the day - or, rather, the end of Joey’s day as Kaiba was still working - he stopped by Hana’s desk to say goodbye. 

She gave him a kind smile. “Don’t let him be too hard on you,” she said. “And don’t get so wrapped up in all these other tasks that you,” she paused to cough, “neglect his needs.”

Joey wasn’t sure what she meant by that. He was sure he’d completed all the tasks on the list. If Kaiba needed anything else, he didn’t say anything. Joey just shrugged. “I think we have to get used to each other more.”

Hana nodded. “That makes sense. He doesn’t really open up easily. Better to ease him into it.”

“Uh, yeah,” Joey said, still with the feeling that there was something else she meant. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” They waved their goodbyes and Joey made his way home.

When he slumped down on his couch he pulled out his phone and noticed missed calls from his friends. He hadn’t had time to tell anyone about the job, and hadn’t told any of them about applying in case he didn’t get it, so it probably was worrying that he wasn’t there. He dialed Tristan back, noticing he had the most missed calls and a couple texts as well.

“Where the hell have you been?” Tristan said immediately upon answering the phone. “I even stopped by and you weren’t there. What’s the deal?”

“Okay, Mom,” Joey teased. “I, uh, I got a new job. I started today.”

Tristan’s tone changed. “Hey! Congratulations! What are you doing this time around?”

Joey gave a nervous chuckle, not sure how his new position would go over. “Well, you’re not going to believe this, but I’m Kaiba’s personal assistant.”

“You’re right, I don’t believe it.”

“It’s true!” Joey perked up a little. “I was running all over town, picking up his dry cleaning and placing orders for deliveries and shit. I’m completely wiped out.”

Tristan laughed. “That’s what you get for working for Kaiba. I bet you only last there a week.”

“Hey!” Joey said with indignation. “Thanks for the support.”

“Oh, come on,” Tristan said. “You hate Kaiba, and he hates you. It’s only a matter of time before one of you loses it.” He snorted. “And let’s face it, you’ve got a shorter temper.”

“I’ll show you. I’ll be the best damn employee Kaiba Corp’s ever had.” That probably wouldn’t be true, but Tristan could have a little more faith in him.

“Okay,” Tristan said. “Two weeks, then.”

Joey tried yelling at him again, but there was only the faint sound of laughter before the line went silent.

The fatigue from the day caught up with him again, his yelling at Tristan having used up what little energy he had left. He dragged himself to his bed and flopped down, quickly double checking that his alarm was set. He was almost asleep when his phone rang, startling him awake. 

Grumbling, he grabbed his phone. It was Yugi. He answered quickly. “Hey, Yug, what’s up?”

“Tristan sent me a text that you’re working for Kaiba?”

Joey sighed. “Yeah, and if you’re gonna give me a hard time about it, too, I just have to say--”

“No!” Yugi said. “I think it’s great!”

“You do?”

“Yeah!” Yugi was always supportive. “Maybe you two will become friends,” Yugi said. “I think if anyone can get through to Kaiba it’s you.”

Joey didn’t believe that. Kaiba was a jerk and always would be a jerk. “Not likely. Kaiba’s still as mean as ever. I’m just doing a job.” He laughed. “And it pays great, so I won’t let him faze me at all.” With a frown he added, “I’ll show Tristan I can last more than two weeks of dealing with Kaiba.”

“Well, okay,” said Yugi. “But I think it would be nice if you two did learn to get along better.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Joey said. Yugi was the most optimistic person Joey knew. He should let some of that rub off on him. “Listen, I have to get some sleep. Another early day tomorrow and I am wiped out, but we should hang out soon.”  
“Yeah!” Yugi said with an excitement level that made Joey jealous. “Let me know when your days off are and we’ll all get lunch!”

They said good night and Joey laid back down. The next day loomed over him and he wondered if he really could cut it working for Kaiba. He was already feeling overworked and despite impressing him with good coffee, Kaiba had been just as dismissive as he usually was. Of course, considering a distinct lack of insults, maybe this gig wouldn’t be so bad. Joey soon drifted off to sleep with a renewed determination.


	3. Works Hard For the Money

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joey really settles into his role at Kaiba Corp but that doesn't mean everything is easy

It was easier to wake up the next day, having crashed early the night before. Joey hit the button on his alarm without throwing it across the room and took the time to stretch before getting out of bed and to the shower. He kept his good mood as he dressed and brewed coffee. He made good time, and ended up at work a half hour before he needed to be there. This job wasn’t so hard, after all. He could do this. He could take on the day.

He was taken out of his good mood soon after Kaiba and Mokuba showed up right as he was chaining his bike to the rack.

“Did you bike here?” Kaiba asked with a sneer.

Joey frowned. “Yeah, I said I didn’t have a car.”

Kaiba rolled his eyes. “When I said you could use one of the company cars, I meant to get to and from work, too.”

“Oh.”

“Just get inside.” He glanced over at the cups Joey held. “Which one’s mine?”

As they walked in the building, Joey held out the one he made for Kaiba, hoping he would like the vanilla flavoring. When Kaiba took a sip, Joey’s hope was whisked away. Kaiba recoiled and made a face. “This is disgusting.” He handed the cup back to Joey. “Why would you give me this?”

With a huff, Joey stepped in front of Kaiba, blocking his way to the elevator. “You said to surprise you.”

“Next time surprise me with something I can actually drink.” Kaiba brushed past Joey, shoulder-checking him as he entered the elevator. Barely making it in time, Joey slipped inside after him. He saw Mokuba’s distressed expression as the doors finally closed, but didn’t have time to worry about it before he rounded back on Kaiba.

“How am I supposed to give you something you like, if you don’t tell me what you like?” Joey snapped.

“What’s in the other cup,” Kaiba asked.

Joey frowned. “It’s the same thing.” He held his cup close to his body. “Not that I would just give you my coffee anyway.”

“When we get upstairs, you’ll just have to leave again,” Kaiba said.

Joey threw out his hands, almost sloshing his coffee out of the lid. “Now why the hell would I do that? Are you trying to fire me or something?” He really hoped he didn’t lose this job on only the second day. Not only because he needed a job, but because he didn’t want to deal with Tristan’s smug look after.

Kaiba scoffed. “To go get me a proper coffee,” he said. The elevator doors opened and Kaiba dug through his wallet. “Here’s a company credit card so you don’t have to go all the way back home.” He handed Joey the card.

“Despite its name, I like Coffee Friends the best, but if you see Sascha working, go to Express Java instead,” he instructed. “Obviously, you’ve seen I don’t like vanilla. I also don’t like caramel, and Sascha tried to force banana on me, which is fine in a smoothie but I won’t drink banana flavored coffee.” 

Joey looked at Kaiba. “Okay,” he said. “Weird that you don’t like two of the best coffee flavorings, but I think I can work with that.”

Kaiba just glared at his joke, and walked away. Joey figured he should get going. He set his coffee down in the break room before rushing back to the elevator and out the door. When he came back from the coffee shop, Kaiba was already deep into his work. Joey put the cup down beside him and Kaiba took a drink. He had no reaction to it, so Joey figured he wasn’t offended by the flavor - chai - and he decided to make it at home the next day.

“Here’s your task list,” he said, holding out the paper and not looking at Joey.

Joey glanced over it and slammed the paper on the desk. For Kaiba’s part, he at least glanced at him. “Are you kidding me?” he shouted. “You run me ragged yesterday, and now you expect me to do almost twice as much?” He pointed at one item. “I went to the dry cleaner yesterday. What, did you get a stain on your backup trench coat?”

Kaiba turned in his chair to face Joey fully. There was a calm that seemed to settle over his entire body. Joey preferred when Kaiba yelled at him. When he was calm like this, Joey didn’t know what to expect. He felt like one of those fish that’s just minding their own business when some giant fish mouth pops up from the sand and devours them. Still, he held Kaiba’s stare.

“I need you to go back,” Kaiba said, “because they screwed up and forgot to hand you one of my suits yesterday.” He handed Joey the receipt. “Try to get a refund, but if they refuse, insist on store credit. Don’t budge on that,” he said. “Call me if they give you trouble.”

He went back to his computer and Joey felt some relief. Kaiba turned quickly, and Joey jumped. “And you should be able to get all of this done in a day, if you’re not so incompetent with time managementl,” Kaiba added. “I suggest you get started, or else I really will fire you.”

Joey snatched his list and stomped out of the office, taking the elevator down to the garage. He needed a moment in the car before he set off to work on everything. If he turned the radio on a little too loud, then that was the garage’s problem.

Mokuba had stayed silent through the disastrous exchange that morning. How was Joey supposed to do his job if he was going to fight with Kaiba like that? Sure, Mokuba reasoned, his brother _had_ instigated the argument, but didn’t prostitutes usually agree with everything their clients said? Then again, maybe this was the kind of treatment Kaiba wanted. Mokuba didn’t want to think about what kind of weird foreplay the two of them would get up to. He had decided to check up on Joey that afternoon, on his lunch break.

He caught Joey in the break room, and watched him angrily stab at his food before walking over to him. “Hey,” Mokuba said, a brightness in his voice that ignored the tension hanging over Joey.

Joey looked up. “Listen, Mokuba, you know I like you and respect you but what the hell is wrong with your brother?”

Mokuba grimaced. That was what he was afraid of. “Are things going that badly?” he asked.

With a huge sigh, Joey launched into a detailed account of his grievances, starting with the coffee incident and ending with Joey trying to bring Kaiba lunch and Kaiba blaming him for the sandwich having mustard on it. (“It’s the shop’s fault they screwed up the order!” “You’re supposed to check that the order is correct!”) Joey’s day so far also included such highlights as Kaiba repeatedly trying to call him while he was on hold with a car insurance company, getting berated for not getting the correct edition of a book from a specialty shop, and Kaiba screaming at him for making too many copies of a report he asked for.

His brother was still acting like a complete terror. Joey had to get to work soon, or else this was all for nothing. He couldn’t be wasting his time worrying about running errands. Mokuba frowned. There were other people in the breakroom so he wanted to handle this conversation delicately, while still letting Joey know what he was talking about. 

“How do you think you’re doing at helping him with his,” he coughed, “ _stress problem_.”

“I think he’s the one giving _me_ a stress problem,” Joey said. “I’m trying my best to do everything I need to do, but he cuts me off any time I feel like I’m making progress, and nothing is ever good enough for His Highness.” Joey slumped in his seat and crossed his arms.

Mokuba wanted to appease Joey, but he wasn’t going to get anywhere with that kind of attitude. “You know what you signed up for,” he said. “And it’s not going to get any better until you just get it over with.” It was a little more blunt than he wanted to be, but he wanted the conversation to be over. The last thing Mokuba wanted to do was coach someone - especially Joey - on how to seduce his brother. “Maybe think about what he would like and do that.”Mokuba tried not to cringe at the thought.

Joey sighed and slumped forward. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “You probably don’t want me to talk about this with you. He is your brother, after all. It’s kind of weird for you to be the mediator in this situation.”

Mokuba was relieved that Joey understood where he was coming from. If Joey could just learn to control his temper and remember what he had to do, the whole plan would go smoothly. He took a deep breath. This _had_ to go smoothly. “I’ve got to get back to work,” he said as he stood up. “As for the work list, try to see if there are things you can do at the same time. I know when I’m on hold with someone I start working on reports.”

Joey nodded. “Thanks, Mokuba. It’s been a big help.”

A week passed. Then another. Before he knew it, Joey had been working a full month at Kaiba Corp. Téa announced she was back home for a break and everyone’s schedules worked out to have coffee together. Joey was excited to have a day off where he could just hang out with his friends. Over the last couple weeks he had to deal with his own errands and recover from Kaiba’s tirades. But he made time for this.

He was late to the Coffee Friends café, but everyone grinned and waved him over. Joey was familiar with the coffee shop given that this was Kaiba’s preferred place to get coffee - barring what Joey brought from home. He’d noticed on days he bought from Coffee Friends, Kaiba was in a worse mood. 

To his dismay, their waiter was Sascha. At first, Joey hadn’t seen what the problem with him was, other than trying to sell Kaiba a flavor he didn’t like. It had soon become apparent that he was an incredibly unpleasant server. Joey had been in plenty of jobs where he had to wait tables, and knew that sometimes people had bad days, but Sascha was something else.

As he came to the table to take everyone’s orders, he glared at Joey. “Oh, I suppose you don’t want to hear our specials, Mr. I-Know-Exactly-What-I-Want-And-Can’t-Even-Grace-My-Server-With-Politeness.” That was typical behavior from Sascha. He always tried to draw out the interactions as long as possible, and if anyone decided to order something he didn’t suggest, he was rude in every interaction after that.

The others looked between Joey and Sascha, an array of shock and confusion on their faces. Yugi spoke up, breaking the tension. “We’ll hear the specials.”

“Hm,” Sascha said. “I’m glad at least Yugi Muto doesn’t think he’s too good for this place.”

Joey sat uncomfortably as everyone ordered, and even tried to appease Sascha by ordering one of the specials. His sour mood didn’t dissipate however, and Joey was a little worried something would happen to his drink. His friends stared at him when Sascha walked away.

“Joey, what was that?” Téa whispered harshly.

Joey rolled his eyes. “He’s like that. I buy coffee for Kaiba here sometimes.” He leaned in closer to his friends and whispered. “I usually try to avoid his shifts if I can.”

“How’s that job going for you anyway?” Tristan asked with a smirk. “Ready to quit?”

Joey punched his arm. “It’s going fine,” he lied. “I’m regular employee of the month material.”

“Sure,” Tristan said.

Yugi smiled. “I’m glad things are going well. Do you think Kaiba would want to join us for lunch sometime?”

Joey let out a laugh. “We’re not friends, Yug.” Yugi just shrugged.

“You can tell us if he’s not treating you well,” Téa said. “No job is worth being miserable.”

That was the kind of thing that people who never had to worry about where their next meal was going to come from would say. Joey appreciated Téa as a friend, but she never really understood Joey’s need to work. Besides, the gig with Kaiba was the most money he’d made in his entire life. He could handle Kaiba throwing a temper tantrum several times a day.

Joey dismissed Téa with a wave. “Nah. It’s worth it.”

“So he _is_ giving you a bad time,” Tristan said, with a smug look.

Joey just laughed in response. “He’s Kaiba. We don’t like each other. It’s not like he’s beating me or anything.”

“I think you should at least _try_ to get along,” Yugi said. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Joey sighed. “I just do what he says and try not to get yelled at.” There was still more yelling than he preferred. “But hey, having Kaiba Corp on a resume is a big deal.”

The other three murmured in agreement. Their small get-together continued with everyone else catching up with what they were up to. It was nice to hear what Téa was up to in New York, what Tristan was learning at his dad’s factory, and a new prototype game that Yugi was working on.

The next day, Joey’s work was back on schedule. He showed up early, gave Kaiba his coffee - an amaretto delight that earned a pleased hum - and worked on the errand list. Joey had got in the habit of starting the phone calls right away in the morning. Less hold time happened when he called right when places opened. He also followed Mokuba’s advice of doing other work when he did end up on hold. The music often played a nice backdrop to whatever he was doing. The company car he was using even had a hands-free bluetooth feature so he could make calls while running errands outside of the office.

By the time lunch rolled around, Joey had made a huge dent in his list. Kaiba had, of course, complained at any slight perceived error, and Joey would bite out a retort. It was an easy routine they’d fallen into, so when Kaiba called Joey to his office, asking him to put his list on hold for the day, Joey didn’t know what to expect. He wouldn’t put it past Kaiba to fire him over all the little things he railed against being less than perfect.

He steeled himself for Kaiba to throw a tantrum at him, and mentally made a list of the places he could apply to after this. He could always go back to washing dishes, but after getting a couple paychecks from a steady job with Kaiba, he felt a little spoiled and didn’t want to resort to that. Maybe he could get some other cushy office job after this. Like he’d told the others, having Kaiba Corp on the resume was always a good thing. He could probably get Mokuba to write him a nice reference letter.

Joey took a deep breath and stepped into Kaiba’s office. “You wanted to see me, Kaiba?” 

Kaiba looked up from his papers. “One of the employees at Kaiba Land called in sick for his shift,” he began. “We’re incredibly short staffed today, and I need you to fill in.”

“Sure,” Joey said, trying not to audibly sigh with relief that he wasn’t fired. “What do you need me to do? Ride operator?” He leaned against Kaiba’s desk. “I worked Tilt-a-Whirl one summer at a carnival, and let me tell you, puke city.”

“Delightful,” Kaiba said, a hint of disgust in his voice. “No,this one’s a mascot job, and--”

“No way,” Joey said. He’d done the whole dog suit deal more times than he cared to admit. He didn’t want to end up in one of those gross, sweaty costumes ever again.

Kaiba glared at him. “Your resume specifically stated you were willing to wear costumes.” He stood up, using the slight bit of height he had over Joey to try and look intimidating. It only worked a little. “Additionally, this is your job. If you want to keep it, you’ll fill in for the rest of the day.” He snorted. “Or is that too difficult for you?”

Kaiba was right, Joey admitted to himself. “I can wear a costume just fine,” he snapped. 

“I’ll take you there,” Kaiba said. “I need to check up on some things there today, anyway.”

It felt surreal. Every time Kaiba provided transportation someplace, it was always weird. Usually it was weird in the way riding a blimp while playing in a Duel Monsters tournament was weird. Sitting alone with Kaiba in the back of a limo, however, carried its own special energy. They rode to the theme park in silence while Joey resigned himself to donning some stupid fursuit yet again. Kaiba had a laptop out, typing away and occasionally pulling out his phone and using that, too. 

When they finally got to Kaiba Land, Kaiba led Joey to the dressing rooms where he was given his costume. Joey was delighted to find it was not a dog but a Blue Eye White Dragon suit. He slipped it on and moved around a bit, getting used to the weight distribution. He stood in front of Kaiba and threw his arms out.

“How do I look?” It was hard to tell with the costume on, and the fact that Kaiba didn’t openly display any sort of emotion besides anger, but Joey could have sworn he saw him grin.

There wasn’t enough time to figure it out before Kaiba came over and straightened the wings on the costume. “I’ll pick you up here when the park closes,” he said. “Go see Hector in the office down the hall about where you need to be. He’s my park manager, and you’ll defer to him while I’m busy.”

“Right,” Joey said before doing as he was told and he could almost feel Kaiba’s gaze on him as he walked down the hallway.

After Joey disappeared from view, Kaiba walked in the opposite direction. There were some glitches in the dueling platforms he needed to take care of. They were routine fixes and Kaiba figured that soon they would need to shut down the duel arena for a full revamp of the system. Things were getting more and more difficult for his senior programmers to fix on their own. Once, he was done in the mainframe, he needed to go across the park to the arena to check the physical systems.

When he had hired Wheeler, he didn’t think he’d get used to that grating presence. Wheeler was still a nuisance, sure, but he’d grown accustomed to him as one grew accustomed to a dull ache in their back after a long day. He was competent enough at the job not to warrant firing, but over the last month, it never hurt to keep him on his toes. Of course, anyone else might have been fired on the spot for arguing with him.

A shrill scream rang out and Kaiba snapped his attention to the sound. The scream quickly dissolved into a fit of giggles as a Blue Eyes caught up to a child. Wheeler let out a roar - not a good imitation of the Blue Eyes, but one the child seemed to enjoy - and moved as if he was about to attack.

“Get back!” another child yelled as they ran up behind them. Wheeler looked over at the kid and roared again. “I’m Dragon Master Knight and I attack you!” The kid ran towards Wheeler who, Kaiba thought, did a convincing job falling to his fake death.

Kaiba felt the smile on his face and kept walking to the arena. Wheeler wouldn’t be fired yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting a new job. I'm hoping to stay consistent with posting but I will either take time to adjust to my new schedule, or I will type with the fury of a thousand suns on my first day off. Either way, I'll definitely be back sooner than later!


	4. Work Hard, Play Hard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaiba and Joey enjoy a nice meal together. It's nice to be tolerated

It wasn’t until Joey was asked to sign a release that he found out pictures had been taken. He showed up in Mokuba’s office holding out some of the proofs. “I’m fine with the pictures, but I shoulda been warned that might happen beforehand.”

Mokuba laughed about it as he looked through them. “Not exactly the costume you thought you’d be wearing when you picked up this gig, huh?” he teased. The Blue Eyes was probably tame compared to anything Joey thought he’d be wearing, Mokuba figured.

“You got that right,” Joey said. “Definitely has some respectability.”

Mokuba laughed in agreement. “Do you think my brother’s feeling less stressed?”

Joey scrunched his face. “It’s hard to say. He doesn’t seem to snap at me as much, but I think he’s going to get wrinkles from how much he scowls.”

“Maybe you should take some time outside of the normal work day to work on that,” Mokuba said. Getting Seto out of work mode was difficult, but it was a lot easier when he wasn’t sitting at his desk. “With how hectic everything can be at the office, you probably don’t actually see him one on one that much.”

“That’s true,” Joey said, leaning back in the chair. “It might make things easier if I can actually have a conversation with him.”

Snorting, Mokuba replied, “You think?” He stood up. “I have to go test out some tech, and you should get back to work.”

With a heavy sigh, Joey also got up. “You’re right. And thanks for the advice. I might swing by the mansion tonight.”

“I’ll make myself scarce, then.” The two of them waved as they walked down opposite ends of the hallway. Mokuba hoped this whole thing would finally get moving tonight.

That evening Joey pulled into the driveway, telling himself this was the last chance he had to turn back. The chance passed as he reached the gate and Kaiba’s face popped up on the intercom. “What the hell do you want?” 

_What a nice greeting,_ Joey thought, fighting the urge to roll his eyes before facing the camera with a smile. “Mokuba suggested you could use some personal assisting outside of the regular work hours, so here I am.”

Kaiba didn’t hide his eye roll from the camera. “Are we paying you overtime for this?”

“Can’t you afford it?” Joey snapped. “Besides, I’m trying to go above and beyond the expectations of the job.”

Kaiba’s sigh was audible, but Joey heard a buzzer before the gate opened. With a grin, he drove through the gate and parked up by the pathway to the front door. A man came to greet him at his car and introduced himself as the valet. Joey thanked the man and handed him his keys before walking up to the house, grumbling about Kaiba complaining about overtime pay when he had an on-call valet.

For his part, Kaiba answered the door himself, though a butler probably would have looked more polite. Joey stepped over the threshold. The Kaiba mansion was like an entirely separate world. Joey had seen some fancy places in his life but he’d never get used to big, hollow halls and tilling that was worth more than his entire apartment. He couldn’t help but stare at everything, and Kaiba stood silently as he let him.

“So,” Joey said, taking off his shoes and wanting to break the silence. “Do you need any assistance this evening?”

Kaiba sighed. “Fuck it. Make me dinner.”

“Huh?” Joey was sure Kaiba had staff for that. Didn’t Kaiba have any paperwork in his home office that needed filing? Documents shredded? Clothes to take to the dry cleaners first thing in the morning?

“The cook has a couple weeks off for vacation,” Kaiba explained. So if you want to make yourself useful go into the kitchen and make me something to eat.” He folded his arms and his stare bored into Joey. “My office is upstairs at the end of the hallway.”

With that, Kaiba turned on his heel and walked up the stairs. Joey stared after him for a moment before heading to the kitchen, his nerves crawling over his skin. He’d never cooked a meal for anyone before - unless boiling some ramen for Tristan counted, and Joey was certain that wasn’t going to cut it here. Kaiba would want an actual meal that took more than a few minutes to make.

Joey sighed and stepped into the kitchen. The nerves jumped even higher as he took in the sight. The kitchen was massive with looming, stainless-steel appliances and pristine marble countertops. There were multiple ovens and Joey determined that he would not do any baking. The refrigerator seemed a good place to start and Joey steeled himself as he opened the door.

There was more food than Joey had seen in his entire life, and a spark of resentment shot through him. Joey was getting paid well now, but he’s spent most of his life worried about where his next meal was coming from. He didn’t want to hate Kaiba for lucking out in the money department, considering he’d come by it with some not-so-lucky situations, but he sure made it hard to be empathetic sometimes.

After digging around the fridge for a couple minutes, Joey found some small steaks and fresh vegetables. If he found the right seasonings and some rice, he could make stir fry. Kaiba’s kitchen did not disappoint and had everything Joey needed to make the meal. 

It was kind of relaxing to make, and the steak was more tender than he was used to working with. He tossed it all together with some fancy butter he found in the fridge and added the rice when it was done in the rice cooker. Once all the meat and veggies were completely cooked through, it looked better than any stir fry he’d ever made before. That’s what quality ingredients did, he thought.

Once it was all done, he put the food on plates and picked out a red wine to go with it. He put it all on a tray and walked up to Kaiba’s office. The door was open, so he pushed it open with his foot and stepped in, announcing his presence with the soft thud of the door against the stopper. Kaiba looked up from his work and eyed Joey.

“Two plates?”

“I’m hungry, too, asshole.” Joey walked over to the desk and sat the plates down before pulling another chair up to the desk. He dug in, relishing in the food. He only hoped Kaiba thought it was good, too.

Kaiba looked more apprehensive as he took his - much smaller - bites.  
“What steak did you use?” Kaiba asked.

“It was those small ones,” Joey said. “They didn’t look big enough for a full meal on their own, so I thought they’d be perfect for the stir fry.”

Kaiba paled and his eyes narrowed. “You used my filet mignon for _stir fry_?”

Joey had the feeling he did something wrong. “Is that bad? It’s just steak.” He took a bite. “Nice and tender, though.”

Kaiba rubbed his temples. “When you get a chance, please look up filet mignon and then tell me what you did wrong.” He contemplated his food. “It does taste good, though. Thank you.”

“Uhh, yeah, I’ll do that,” Joey said, thrown by Kaiba both insulting and complimenting him. “I’m glad you like it.”

They were quiet for a moment and Joey finished his meal long before Kaiba was halfway done with his own. He thought about leaving. He was asked to make a meal and he did. Kaiba asked nothing else of him.

“So, how’s your sister?” Kaiba’s question curtailed Joey’s plans to leave. Joey hadn’t realized Kaiba remembered her at all.

He smiled brightly. “She’s doing great!” He sat up, gesturing animatedly as he spoke about her. “She wants to become a doctor, so she’s busy studying a lot, but I know she’s gonna do great.” He laughed. “She definitely got the brains in the family.”

Kaiba smiled at the joke but made no comment on Joey’s intelligence. “Do you get to see her often?” he asked. “I remembered there were some,” he paused, seeming to think his words over carefully, “tension in your family.”

Joey chuckled nervously. “Yeah. Ever since Battle City I get to visit her a lot more.” Joey shrugged. “Mom and I had a good talk, so things are doing better between us.” He shifted in his seat. It was uncomfortable to talk about his family problems.

“Parents are complicated,” he said after a moment.

Kaiba hummed in agreement. He picked more at his food and Joey thought he was the slowest eater he’d ever met. He’d have been worried Kaiba didn’t actually like the meal, but he’d said he liked it and Kaiba had no reason to lie to Joey. If there was one thing Joey knew about Kaiba, it was that he let his displeasure be known.

“When my cook is back from vacation, I’ll have her make something for you,” Kaiba said. 

The sentiment struck Joey, and he fumbled a bit before answering. “Aw, you don’t have to do that. This was part of my job,” he said. 

Kaiba shrugged. “I thought it would be nice to offer,” he said. He then stared at Joey for a moment, and Joey was too scared to break the silence.

“If you weren’t working for me, and found yourself here, would you still have made dinner if I asked?”

The question was unexpected and a little strange. If he wasn’t working for Kaiba, Joey wouldn’t have thought to come over at all. It took him a moment to think about it. “I know we’re not exactly friends, but I think if I did just come over to hang out, I might’ve whipped something up for you.” He grinned. “Probably would’ve complained about doing it.”

Kaiba let out a short laugh. “You still do plenty of complaining on the job,” he said.

“Hey, your dry cleaner is one of the meanest, most stubborn jerks I’ve ever met,” Joey yelled. “And that’s including the fact that I’ve met you.” He stuck his tongue out.

“Then you’ve had plenty of practice dealing with stubborn jerks and should do just fine dealing with George on a regular basis.” Kaiba’s tone was all professional, but there was a small upturn to the sides of his lips. He was joking with Joey. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Joey said, dismissing Kaiba. “You’re lucky you’ve got me.” He downed the rest of the wine in his glass and looked back over at Kaiba and considered him for a moment.

“You know, I think I will let you treat me to a meal made by your very own personal chef,” he said.

Kaiba nodded. “I’d like that. I’ll add it to my calendar.” He glanced at Joey. “She’s back on the twenty-fourth. Are there any particular days that work best for you?”

“Uh, I’m free most evenings,” Joey said. They were actually scheduling another meal together. Or maybe Kaiba just meant Joey would eat the food. He hadn’t expected the dinner Joey made to be shared, so the meal made by the cook probably wouldn’t either.

Kaiba clicked around on his calendar before turning the screen to Joey. “I’m free on the thirtieth, it looks like. We can eat in the dining room instead of hunched at my desk.”

 _We_. The word stuck with Joey and he felt his heart pick up its pace. “I’m guessing I’ll be off the clock for that one,” he said with a smile.

“Of course,” Kaiba said. “I don’t pay people for social calls.”

“Don’t really have many of those, do you?” Joey instantly regretted the jab, but Kaiba laughed.

Kaiba leaned back in his seat. “I never saw much use for friends, but Mokuba keeps bugging me to do something other than work.” He looked at Joey again, eyes intense as usual. “And you’re not terrible to spend time with.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Considering I find most people intolerable, you should consider it a compliment that I’d grace you with my presence at all.” Kaiba held that haughty smile that Joey wanted to smack right off his face. Something stopped him from snapping back, though. Kaiba _didn’t_ hang out with people.

Joey grinned and leaned close to Kaiba.

“What are you doing?” Kaiba said, a hint of warning in his voice.

“We’re friends, Kaiba,” Joey said.

“Shut up,” Kaiba said, and shoved a hand on Joey’s face, pushing him away. 

Joey stood up and laughed. “I gotta go, but I’ll see you at work.”

Kaiba nodded, acknowledging Joey, but not looking back up from his computer. 

“See you later.” Joey chuckled again. “Friend.”

Kaiba looked up and threw a stapler at the wall near Joey. “Stop it. Get out.” There was no bite behind his words, though and Joey laughed more, closing the door behind him.

Mokuba almost bumped into Joey as he was leaving the front door. “Hey, Joey,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t get home too early.” He cleared his throat. “How’d it go?”

“It was nice. I made dinner and we talked for a bit.”

Mokuba raised an eyebrow. “So you just ate and talked?” Mokuba knew his brother took a while to open up to people - not that he’d ever opened up to anyone before - but Joey was taking his sweet time making his move. 

Joey shrugged. “Yeah. You know, your brother isn’t that bad.” Mokuba fought against rolling his eyes before Joey continued his thought. “We’ve got plans for dinner again soon.”

He looked Joey up and down before sighing. Joey knew what he was doing; he was the expert at this. Going this slow was necessary for Kaiba. It didn’t hurt that having Joey around was helpful with the office work, as well. Mokuba could accept that he hadn’t moved as fast as he had thought it would go at first.

The work week happened too fast. It was project after project as Kaiba Corp went into its next quarter. Joey could barely power through the extra workload, but had plenty of support from other staffers. Hana, especially, was a pro at organizing all the tasks. Twelve years of working for Kaiba under her belt left her completely unruffled by anything. Between her support and Kaiba inviting Joey to spend their (usually silent) lunches in his office, the extra work was downright bearable.

Even dealing with the dry cleaner was a more pleasant experience. George didn’t give him any trouble, which gave Joey more time to work on his other tasks. (“Mr. Kaiba mentioned you said the dry cleaner gave you less than satisfactory customer service, so he called and gave him an earful,” Hana said when he mentioned the experience later.) With everything in place, Joey was exhausted but accomplished.

As he was about to leave on Friday afternoon, Joey stopped into Kaiba’s office. He knocked to announce himself, but entered without waiting for a reply. Kaiba looked up at him, but didn’t object. Feeling a little more emboldened, Joey walked up to the desk. “Hey, I’m leaving for the day but I just wanted to say thanks for talking to George for me. It really makes my day a lot easier, and I know you didn’t have to do it but--”

Kaiba held a hand up to stop him. Joey stood silently as Kaiba finished typing something before turning to face Joey directly. “I don’t like people mistreating my employees,” he explained. “Especially not my more valuable ones.” He turned back to his computer. “I can always find a different dry cleaner. I can’t exactly find another you.”

The statement took Joey aback. It was said so casually, like it didn’t mean anything. Knowing Kaiba, it probably didn’t mean anything too deep. Still, it was nice to hear that he was more irreplaceable than Kaiba’s preferred dry cleaning service. “Well, still thought I should show my gratitude,” he said. “Have a good weekend.”

“You too, Wheeler,” Kaiba said, not looking up from the screen, but offering a friendly wave.

The weekend was a welcome relief to Joey as he made plans with his friends again. They sat in their usual booth at Burger World where, besides the one time Téa worked there, the service was always pleasant. They chatted a bit to catch up on things since they last saw each other in person. It felt forever ago, considering how long the work weeks dragged on. No matter how long between their meetups, they always fell right back into a rhythm.

"How's Kaiba Corp, Joey?" Téa asked, tearing him from his third burger.

Joey grinned. "It's going great, actually. It's quarterly changeover right now so everyone is scrambling around." He puffed out his chest. "And Kaiba even congratulated me when we were having lunch together."

Yugi smiled brightly. "You two are getting along, then?"

Rubbing the back of his head, Joey gave a noncommittal noise as he thought about the nice things Kaiba had said about him. “We don’t hate each other,” he said, not comfortable actually calling themselves friends.

Tristan punched him on the arm. “Got Stockholm syndrome over there?”

Joey punched back. “I’m not held hostage there, you moron.”

“Knock it off, guys,” Téa said. “We can’t get kicked out of Burger World _again_ because of you two fighting each other.” She grabbed both of them by their ears and they settled back down, Joey catching a glimpse of a relieved employee behind the counter.

“I think it’s great that you and Kaiba are friends,” Yugi said. He was comfortable enough to drop that word. He and Kaiba probably were friends. At least as much friendship as Kaiba could manage.

“Yeah, I think we are friends,” he said. “It’s weird but I’ve actually been enjoying hanging out with him.”

“That’s great,” Téa and Yugi said in unison before falling into laughter.

Tristan didn’t look as pleased. “I don’t know. I don’t really trust that guy,” he said. “You’re just an employee.”

“What do you know, anyway,” Joey said with a frown. “You’re not the one who’s been hanging out with him. I think I know him a little better than you.”

Tristan slung an arm around Joey. “Just don’t let him rub off on you too much,” he added with a laugh.

“Hey, maybe I’ll rub off on him and he’ll start hanging around all of us with a big, bright smile on his face,” Joey said.

Everyone, even Yugi, laughed at the suggestion. It wasn’t likely Kaiba would ever be the kind of friend that the rest of the gang were, but Joey couldn’t help but think it would be nice to spend more time with Kaiba. Seeing him relaxed was nice. He was like an actual human. Even though the work was hard, he realized he was excited to get back to it, in part because he wanted to see Kaiba.

“But you’re definitely not quitting, huh?” said Tristan.

“No,” Joey said, thoughtfully. “I think I actually really like this job.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? I promised I'd be back. Thanks again to everyone reading this! We're over the halfway point now~!


	5. Ain't No Rest For The Wicked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You just can't fire someone from Kaiba Corp without them coming back for revenge. Even worse than dealing with server sabotage is _emotions_

The day started off like any other: wake up, shower, make coffee, and leave. Joey enjoyed the new routine he had at the office. He smiled to himself. Never had he thought he would enjoy routine, and he certainly never thought he would have an office job. The most surprising thing of all was that seeing Kaiba every day was a perk of the job. He was a hard guy to read, but Joey suspected he felt the same. Putting a nice coffee maker in his office and having Joey stick around for the entire lunch hour had to mean something.

“Taking a lunch” was a foreign concept to Kaiba, but Joey didn’t mind sitting on the couch while Kaiba worked. Occasionally, they’d have some brief conversation, but for the most part it was silent. Joey had never settled into comfortable silence before. He’d heard people use the term, but had never imagined being able to stand simply sitting quietly. It was nice.

“What?” Kaiba said under his breath. Joey didn’t pay much mind to it. He didn’t understand anything that Kaiba worked on, but sometimes there’d be some minor flaw in a spreadsheet. Joey readied himself to listen to Kaiba rant about the incompetents who worked under him and how they needed to go back to school to learn how to place decimals.

That rant never came.

“No,” said Kaiba. “No, no!” he said again, each one punctuated with greater intensity. Joey sat up and stared at Kaiba as he frantically clicked through bits of data that Joey didn’t understand. 

“Come with me,” he demanded before storming out of the office. Joey was quick to hurry after him.

It took him a few moments of light jogging between Kaiba’s head start and long strides for Joey to catch up. “What’s going on?” he asked once he matched his pace.

“There’s an issue with our internal servers,” Kaiba said.

That sounded bad. “I know I’m not really a tech guy, but what kind of problem?”

Kaiba glanced at Joey, seeming to calculate how much he needed to explain. “I have an intricate set of firewalls in place to stop hackers from getting into company files. There are several, independent layers keeping all of the data safe,” he glanced at Joey again to make sure he was following along. 

“Usually, if there’s a breach in one, it’s fine. This is not a delicate system,” he continued. “The fact that someone got through means it’s someone with intimate knowledge of how Kaiba Corp systems work.”

Joey stared at Kaiba for a moment. “You mean this was an inside job?”

“In a way,” he said. “I think this was the work of someone I fired a couple months back.” He stopped and looked at Joey. “It was about a week before you were hired, actually.”

“Hey, I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Joey said.

Kaiba snorted. “I didn’t think you were a pawn in corporate espionage, Wheeler.” He got close to Joey’s face. “Although, it would be perfect. Get someone close to the enemy, get them comfortable, and then crush them.”

Joey’s eyes widened before Kaiba straightened up and laughed. “I know you wouldn’t do something like that to me. It would be a ridiculous thing to entertain,” he said before continuing through the building.

With a huff Joey followed after him. “Why’d you fire him?”

Kaiba gritted his teeth. “He made inappropriate remarks about my sex life.”

“You’ve got a sex life?” Joey said before he could stop himself and was met with a glare.

“Okay, okay, I get it. Not cool,” he said, trying not to be the next person to get fired. “But do you think I _could_ be used as a spy?” he asked with a grin.

“I could think of ways to use you, were I so inclined.”

“What does that mean?” Joey asked, but got no answer as they took an elevator Joey had never seen before. They rode in silence, this time an _un_ comfortable silence, all the way to the bottom.

The doors opened up to the most immaculate place Joey had ever seen. The gentle hum of machinery and clacking of keyboards filled the room. It looked exactly like the kind of place that Joey imagined Kaiba was created. There wasn’t much time to look around before Kaiba stomped around, looking over people’s shoulders. For their credit, none of them flinched at any of his outbursts as he looked through the lines of codes they had on their screen.

Joey hovered behind Kaiba, moving as he moved, stepping out of the way of his more erratic movements, not knowing what was going on, but assuming Kaiba wouldn’t have asked him to come along if he wasn’t needed for something. He just didn’t know what Kaiba could possibly need him for. Joey didn’t know coding. Joey was not a computer guy at all. Kaiba still gave him printed lists for his tasks when there was a perfectly good to do list app on his phone.

“I know it’s him,” Kaiba said. “This is undeniably his style.” 

Joey peeked over the shoulder of one of the employee’s. It looked like any other code he’d seen before. The notion that there were different styles that could be picked out was incredible. “So you can get him,” Joey said.

Kaiba groaned in frustration. “I’d like to, but the source code doesn’t lead anywhere with proof.” He slammed his hand on a desk and Joey noticed again that the employee didn’t flinch. He wouldn’t put it past Kaiba to hire robots, but it seemed like these people were just used to working under that kind of stress.

He walked to a couple more computers before letting out a bellow. Joey stepped away from him and stared. Kaiba seemed like the kind of guy who could fix any problem. Seeing him struggle with this was hard to watch. Joey wanted to do something to help.

“Mr. Kaiba,” one of the tech people called out.

“What,” Kaiba snapped.

“I think the only thing to do at this point is an entire system overhaul,” she replied. “We’ve managed to divert the malicious code as much as possible, but at this point we’re only delaying a full system breach.”

Kaiba rubbed his temples. “Fine. I’ll send out a memo to everyone else to go home early for the day.”

“Yes, sir.”

Without another word, Kaiba stomped back to the elevator, with Wheeler quickly scrambling behind him. Once they were back in the office, Kaiba slumped in his chair, pressing his fingers against his temples and rolling his shoulders. This wasn’t the worst case scenario, but it was bad. He should have done the system overhaul the moment Blake was fired. Someone with that much inside knowledge of Kaiba Corp systems was bound to try and get revenge. Kaiba had dealt with some sick individuals before, but he hadn’t considered Blake a true threat.

That’s what Kaiba hated the most; he had underestimated an opponent. At least it could be fixed.

Kaiba startled out of his thoughts when he felt hands start kneading into his shoulders. It was Wheeler, of course. He was the only other person here. The massage was instantly relieving. When was the last time he had even thought about getting a massage? 

Too long, apparently. “Jeez, Kaiba, you’re so tense your muscles are like concrete.” It was just like Wheeler to make some kind of rude comment like that. He was right, though, and he was doing him a kindness. A shoulder massage was definitely not in the job description. Spending every lunch hour in silence with him was not in the job description. Walking down to the server room and standing around in confusion was not in the job description.

He dug into a particularly hard knot and Kaiba sucked in a breath. “Sorry,” Wheeler muttered.

Kaiba leaned his head back to look up at Wheeler. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem,” he replied. “Just doing the personal assisting thing.” 

Wheeler was dismissive but Kaiba saw a hint of a blush on his cheeks. Kaiba knew his stare was intense; everything he ever did was intense. He turned around in the chair, breaking the contact on his shoulders. Wheeler looked confused before Kaiba reached out and placed a hand on the back of Wheeler’s neck. The blush deepened and Wheeler braced his hands on either arm of the chair as he leaned down and pressed his lips against Kaiba’s.

Kaiba sucked in a breath. It was stupid to be surprised when he knew it was coming, but he’d never kissed anyone before. The sensation was nice but foreign. His fingers moved up Wheeler’s neck and tangled into his hair. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he moved his mouth against Wheeler’s following the other’s lead. He felt Wheeler’s tongue glide across his lips and he gasped again.

The shock to his system made him pull back and for a brief moment he saw Wheeler, looking heavy-lidded with swollen lips. The realization of what just happened seemed to dawn on him as well as his eyes widened.

“I’m late to meet your contractor,” he announced before practically running out of the office.

Kaiba sat, staring at the door, for a few moments before Mokuba walked in. He quickly composed himself.

“I heard what happened with the system overhaul,” Mokuba said.

Kaiba frowned again and instantly felt a twinge in his shoulders again. He should have just let Wheeler give him the massage and leave it at that. How stupid to act so impulsively. He didn’t have time to get into those sorts of entanglements. People would only let him down, in the end. Sure, Wheeler would never turn corporate spy against him, but that wasn’t the only way someone could betray another person.

He must have been silent too long because Mokuba spoke again. “This Blake situation is really hitting you hard, huh?”

“Hm,” Kaiba replied with a nod. That was what should have been troubling him the most, but the situation was being handled. His IT team could fix the issues, and while he should have stopped the problem before it started, Kaiba had no interest in beating himself up over the past. It happened and now he was fixing the problem he caused.

The situation with Wheeler was the more pressing one. It was a problem that hadn’t been solved yet and it didn’t have an easy solution. Codes and numbers were easy to deal with. People and their emotions were disgusting. Most people’s emotions could be tweaked and manipulated. Most people were easy to predict when it came to emotional responses. Wheeler was especially easy to rile up. Kaiba knew just how to get a reaction out of him. 

But this.

He didn’t know anything about how Wheeler acted when it came to attraction. He’d seen him flustered around people, sure, but acting on the attraction? Relationships? Kaiba pulled a face.

“Mokuba, I need some time to think.”

Mokuba looked confused. “Okay.” Then he smiled in a way Kaiba didn’t trust. He knew when Mokuba was up to something. “Maybe you should give Joey a call.”

“Why?” Kaiba said, eyes narrowed.

“He seems like the kind of person who’d be a comforting presence,” he said with a shrug.

Could Mokuba have read the situation so easily? It was doubtful he knew the extent of the situation, but could Mokuba have seen something that Kaiba hadn’t realized until just a few minutes ago. Kaiba dismissed the thought for now. “I need to be alone.”

Mokuba sighed. “Fine,” he said. “But I really think at least talking to Joey would be good for you. You’re always in a much better mood after you have lunch with him,” he added, again looking like he knew something, before stalking out of the office.

Joey had wasted no time hightailing it out of there and driving across town. It wasn’t a lie that he was late meeting the contractor. Kaiba was doing some renovations to the garage at the mansion. Some foundational support needed to be fixed or something. But that wasn’t why he left so quickly. In fact, going to the guy’s house was one of the last places he wanted to be. Joey didn’t want to be around anything that reminded him of Kaiba right now. The kiss was the only thing he could think of. Sure, he was the one that leaned in and started the actual kiss, but Kaiba was the instigator. The way he looked at him. The way he reached for him.

“What am I gonna do?” he shouted. The contractor looked over at him and Joey excused himself with a nervous chuckle.

He walked into the main house to vent to himself. No one was working inside the mansion today and Joey figured Kaiba would be busy all day dealing with the tech issues. He could shout and fret all he wanted without anyone seeing him. Joey plopped himself down on a couch in one of the lounges. He needed some outside perspective. He wasn’t sure if he wanted his friends to know about the kiss yet, though. It was Kaiba they were dealing with here. He needed people a little more removed from the situation.

The first call to Mai went to voicemail, which was a little bit of a relief. She probably would have had great advice, but he considered it might have been weird to talk about the kiss with someone he used to have a huge crush on. The next call to one of his cousin’s, Jesse, also went to voicemail and Joey sighed. He didn’t talk that much to his family and that guy probably wouldn’t be much help anyway. The most they ever talked about was dueling, and that wouldn’t be any help in this situation.

Joey stared at his phone. He definitely wasn’t going to call his mom or sister to talk about this. He hadn’t talked to his dad since he moved out. Why did he even have Rex and Weevil’s numbers? Realizing he didn’t actually know that many people, he hit the call button on the next option.

“Joey, I’m at work, can it wait?” Tristan said.

“You sit behind a desk now,” Joey retorted. “You can take a five minute break.”

He heard Tristan’s sigh. “Well, you are calling in the middle of a workday, so it’s probably important.”

“I kissed Kaiba.”

Silence hung over the line and for a moment Joey thought the call had disconnected.

“I’m sorry,” Tristan said. “I think there’s a bad connection. It sounded like you said you kissed Kaiba?”

“Yes,” Joey said quietly.

“Why? What?” Tristan sputtered out some more incoherent questions before Joey tried to answer.

“I don’t know!” he said. He fiddled with the fibers on the couch. “It just sort of happened.”

Tristan scoffed. “How does that kind of thing ‘just sort of happen?’”

“Well,” Joey said before explaining everything that had led up to the kiss.

“So he started it?” Tristan asked.

“Yeah!”

“Hmmm,” Tristan started. “Are you into him?”

“I don’t know,” Joey said, but he didn’t even convince himself.

“Well, I know with your sister, I--”

“Nope, no,” Joey cut him off. “You are not about to give me advice. You don’t even know how to have a relationship.” He huffed. “And stop talking about Serenity. It’s just weird at this point, man.”

“Fine, fine,” Tristan agreed. “Well, try not to get involved in a sexual harassment lawsuit,” he offered before hanging up. Joey yelled back at him, even though he knew the other couldn’t hear.

Tristan was a great friend but Joey should have figured that talking to him about his problem wouldn’t be helpful. He needed to talk to someone a little smarter about people and relationships. That was why his first instinct was to call Mai, after all. Téa would come at the problem with practicality. She was good at talking sense into people and that’s what he needed right now.

However, after calling her and explaining the situation Joey didn’t think she was being helpful at alll.

“You should talk to him about how you’re feeling,” she said. “And how he’s feeling.”

“Talk about feelings with Kaiba?” That was the stupidest thing Joey had ever heard, and he’d heard a lot of stupid things.

He could almost hear Téa’s eyeroll over the phone. “How else are you going to solve this problem if you don’t talk about it.”

“You just don’t understand, Téa,” Joey said. “That may work for girls, but this isn’t a girl problem.”

“You are so stupid, Joey!” she yelled. “This is a people problem and you need to grow up and learn to deal with your emotional problems in a mature and healthy way!” The line went dead.

Joey threw his phone down on the couch and groaned. The whole thing was a mess. He stared at his phone. He could call Yugi. He would at least be encouraging and optimistic about the situation. On the other hand, the only significant relationship Yugi had was with an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who had since passed on to the afterlife. Joey didn’t think any of his advice would apply to the situation.

With a sigh, he picked up his phone again and called Yugi, anyway and was greeted by his bright voice. It made Joey feel a little better. Yugi listened as Joey explained the situation for a third time that day. This time it didn’t seem as bad. This time everything seemed to click into place.

“And it was stupid of me to just run off like that,” he concluded.

For his part, Yugi didn’t agree that he was stupid. “It probably didn’t leave the best impression on Kaiba,” Yugi said. It was true. Kaiba probably thought the worst of him.

Joey sighed. “I’ve gotta fix this.”

“Do you know what you’re going to do?” Yugi asked.

Joey sighed louder this time. “Yeah, but I’m not going to like it.” He wanted to run away, like he had earlier. Anything to put off what he knew he had to do. Joey shifted in the seat and slung his legs over the back of the couch and let his head hang off the seat. His hair brushed the floor and he mused that he should probably get a haircut. He’d probably go to a professional instead of just trimming it in his bathroom mirror this time. He could do it today, and look nice when he showed up for work tomorrow.

“Earth to Joey,” came Yugi’s voice.

He sat up too fast and felt a little dizzy as he responded to Yugi snapping him out of his thoughts. “What?”

Yugi laughed. “I was saying that sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do. If you want results, you have to put in the work and it’s not always fun and games.” Yugi paused. “Even if you’re literally working on fun and games.” Yugi would know about that.

Joey sighed. “You’re right,” he said. “I just needed the push.” He crossed his legs and leaned his elbows on his knees. “Thanks, Yug.”

“Anytime, Joey,” he said before hanging up.

Joey pulled up his messages and sent a text to Téa. _sorry for being a sexist jerk ur right ill talk 2 kaiba_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and yes i did make a reference to a throwaway bit of dialogue in the 5Ds dub


	6. Take This Job and Shove It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several cats come out of several bags

Joey laid on the couch until the contractor sent him a message that he was done for the day. There wasn’t a good reason he needed to hang around the mansion anymore, and he didn’t want to risk staying until Kaiba got home. He couldn’t face the guy after what happened. Some guy got fired for making a comment about Kaiba’s sex life, and Joey had actually gone and _kissed_ Kaiba.

That was nice, though. And Kaiba seemed into it, too. Joey felt his heart beat a little faster just thinking about it. He thought about the time he’d been spending with Kaiba. When Kaiba wasn’t being a huge dick, he was alright. And Kaiba wasn’t that much of a dick anymore. In fact, sometimes he would tell jokes. He had a weird sense of humor but Joey kind of liked it. He liked Kaiba.

He _really_ liked Kaiba.

It was stupid. They weren’t teenagers anymore. They didn’t need to act embarrassed and avoid each other, or freak out and run out of rooms just because they kissed. Joey would confront these feelings head on and tell Kaiba he liked him.

Tomorrow.

When he woke up, Joey was so keyed up, he didn’t think he needed coffee to wake him up. However, he wanted to make Kaiba the best damn coffee he’d ever had in his life. The timing had to be just right so the espresso wouldn’t get bitter by the time he got to the office. After a couple months, he was sure he cracked the code of what Kaiba liked in his coffee. Extra hot espresso with a shot of sugar syrup and light cream was the recipe for romance.

He got to Kaiba Corp at his usual time, ready to give Kaiba his coffee. However when he got there, only Mokuba was walking through the door. He raised an eyebrow. “Where’s your brother?” Joey asked. “This is usually when we get to work.”

Mokuba shrugged. “He’s been acting weird since yesterday’s hacking. He was already gone when I woke up.” Mokuba worked on setting up the lobby desk as usual. “I’m sure he’ll really want that coffee,” he said nodding at the travel mug Joey held.

“Yeah, I better get up there,” Joey said and gave Mokuba a smile and a wave before disappearing into the elevator. 

The smile faded once the doors closed and he slumped against the wall. It was a ridiculous thought, but maybe Kaiba was freaked out about the kiss. Maybe he regretted it and all the great coffee in the world couldn’t make up for what had happened. Joey would be fired and his life would be ruined.

He took a deep breath. Whatever happened, he was going to suck it up and be tough about it. There was nothing to be afraid of. If Kaiba didn’t like him back then he could go fuck himself, the jerk. He didn’t need to play around with a guy’s emotions by kissing him and then ignoring him.

With that determination, he made his way to Kaiba’s office and threw open the door. Kaiba looked up, startled. Without saying anything, Joey strode over to the desk and set down the coffee.

“You’re here early,” Joey said.

Kaiba took a drink of the coffee and cracked a smile. “My favorite.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Joey wasn’t sure how to proceed anymore. Kaiba was acting like nothing had happened. There was no tension or awkwardness in the way he acted. Joey was struck, unsure if his plan to tell Kaiba he liked him was harder or easier now. He opened his mouth, ready to speak without thinking too hard about it.

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable yesterday,” Kaiba said before Joey could say anything. 

Joey tensed up. “No! I wasn’t uncomfortable!” he sputtered out. “I just wasn’t expecting it to happen and I didn’t know what to do, so I ran and--”

“Wheeler,” Kaiba interrupted. Joey shut his mouth without any argument. He stared at Kaiba for a moment, waiting for him to continue. “I find myself,” he paused, “fond of you.” He winced.

Joey sucked in a breath. His heart raced. Those were probably the worst words Kaiba could have used to describe his feelings, but he still had them. Kaiba liked him. Kaiba was _fond_ of him. Joey grinned. 

“I like you, too,” he said, with much less effort than Kaiba had taken in his own confession.

“Why?” Kaiba said, voice dripping with contempt.

That took Joey aback. That wasn’t at all how he thought this would go. Kaiba sounded upset that Joey returned his feelings. “What do you mean why?” Joey said. Before Kaiba could answer, Joey continued talking. “Of course I like you! You’re smart and dedicated and you’re actually a really decent guy.” He threw up his hands. “For years I’ve seen the way you act with Mokuba. I’ve also seen you really listen to and trust in your employees. You’re actually pretty fun to be around when you let your guard down.”

“Huh,” Kaiba said. He sat there and Joey didn’t know how much time passed, but it felt like an eternity. He didn’t want to say anything more. It was Kaiba’s turn in this conversation. “You’re not going to ask why I like you?” he said, breaking the silence.

Joey threw Kaiba a cheeky grin. “No. I’m very likable.”

Kaiba snorted. “I guess I can’t deny that.” He turned in his chair and looked at Joey. “What do you want to do about this?”

“Uh,” Joey slumped on the couch. “I hadn’t really thought any further than coming up here and telling you I liked you.”

“You know,” Kaiba said, standing up. “I’m usually steps ahead in anything I do, but I hadn’t considered any of this.” He stood directly above Joey and Joey felt incredibly small. He stood up too. He was still shorter but it was more like equal footing. They were so close to each other.

“So do you wanna do anything about it?” It was a challenge.

“I’ve never dated anyone before.” Kaiba smiled. “It’s probably the one thing I’m bad at.”

“Well, you’re only going to get good at it by doing it,” Joey said.

Kaiba considered him. “Okay.” 

It was such a simple statement, but Joey couldn’t help but feel excitement bubble up inside of him. He punched the air. “Yeah!”

Kaiba rolled his eyes. “Don’t be embarrassing,” he said, but a hint of a smile played at his lips.

Dating for Kaiba was weird. He was used to being a public figure. Personal details about his life invariably leaked to the press. He absolutely did not want his dating life to leak out. Gossip about Domino City’s “Most Eligible Bachelor” was already out of hand most of the time. Any woman he’d even stood near sparked whispers about engagements. The tabloids would have a field day with the Wheeler situation.

Thankfully, Wheeler was willing to keep things quiet. Or, at least, as quiet as he could. Despite better judgement, Kaiba let Wheeler tell his little friends about their situation. He’d apparently been talking to them about his feelings the whole time. That was annoying, but Kaiba was fairly confident the other three could keep their mouths shut.

Mokuba was a different situation. Discreet, sure, but annoying when it came to Kaiba’s personal life. _You should open up more,_ he’d say, or _It’s good to have friends,_ he’d reason, or even _Yugi and his friends aren’t so bad once you get to know them_. Kaiba didn’t want to deal with the smug expression on his brother’s face if he admitted he had a point. Wheeler had wormed his way into Kaiba’s life and it was definitely a change for the better.

Occasionally, Wheeler stopped by for dinners at the Kaiba mansion. The chef was happy to cook for more than just one person at a time on those nights. Most of the time, their “dates” were a continuation of the lunches they spent together. Kaiba had taken to sitting on the couch next to Wheeler. The closeness was uncomfortable in a way, but it thrilled him. The drumming of his heart, which was something disgusting when other people described it, was an almost Pavlovian response to being around Wheeler.

“This is nice,” he said during one lunch, fingers laced with Wheeler’s.

Wheeler smiled at him. The idiot smiled at everything, but somehow made it seem special when he smiled at Kaiba. “It is nice, isn’t it?” He leaned over and kissed Kaiba before getting back to his food.

Placing a hand on top of Wheeler’s, Kaiba grabbed his food and put it aside. Wheeler looked delightfully confused. The confusion was quickly replaced by a grin as Kaiba cupped his face bringing him in for a deep kiss.

Kaiba climbed on top of Wheeler and straddled him. He laced their fingers together and pressed Joey’s hands into the back of the couch. Wheeler rolled his hips against Kaiba eliciting a soft hum from him. Kaiba leaned down and gently pressed his lips against Wheeler’s. One of his hands trailed down, giving Wheeler a gentle squeeze and feeling just how hard he was already. This was a pretty good way to spend a lunch hour.

The intercom beeped and Hana’s voice, unaware of anything going on, interrupted them. “Mr. Kaiba, Thom Willsen of Presto Games is on the line for you.”

Kaiba sighed heavily and leaned toward the desk to hit the button and reply back. “Put him through,” he said, an edge of annoyance creeping in his voice. He slid off Wheeler’s lap and settled into his chair as he picked up the phone. Wheeler picked up his lunch again.

The feeling of Wheeler between his legs still played over in his head. It was pretty distracting, and he couldn’t help stealing a few glances from him. It pleased him when their eyes met. Wheeler was thinking of him as well.

Maybe, just maybe, keeping a lot of their dates to the office was a bad idea. Or maybe, as Joey had tried to tell Kaiba, keeping this secret from Mokuba was stupid. Joey didn’t know why Kaiba was so resistant to telling Mokuba they were dating, but every time he tried to bring it up, Kaiba would scoff or change the subject. Or start kissing and touching him, which was a great way to get Joey to drop any other topic of conversation.

So it was during one of their lunch hours that was more about sucking face than eating food that Mokuba threw open the office door. Joey and Kaiba jumped apart, startled by the noise. The three of them stared at each other for a moment before Mokuba spoke.

“Finally,” he said. “I was wondering what was taking so long.”

Kaiba frowned. “I don’t think that’s any of your business,” he said.

Joey smiled sheepishly. “Listen, _I_ wanted to tell you we were dating but, you know how your brother is.” That probably wasn’t the best explanation, but hopefully Mokuba would understand.

“Wait,” he said, looking back and forth between the other two. “Dating?”

Kaiba pulled a face. “Yes, dating. Why else would we be--” he gestured to Joey. “Doing that?”

With a scowl that could rival Kaiba’s, Mokuba turned on Joey. “That isn’t what you were hired for, Joey!”

“I know, and I’m still keeping up on the personal assistant stuff, but it just sort of happened and--” 

Kaiba put up a hand and stepped in front of Joey. “I’m confused, Mokuba.” His voice was cold in the way he spoke to an employee who had fucked up. “You say ‘finally’ yet you’re angry at Joey for, what, not following company relationship policy?”

Mokuba looked at Joey like he was expecting him to explain what was going on. Well, the kid could do the explaining himself, because Joey sure didn’t know what the hell was happening.

With an exasperated sigh, Mokuba spoke up again. “This was a,” he cringed, looking to avoid the word, “prostitute thing.”

“What?” both Joey and Kaiba said.

“Oh, come on, Joey,” said Mokuba. “Don’t pretend you didn’t know!”

“I didn’t!” Joey tried to think back to anything he could have said that could have been mistaken for him saying he took a job as a prostitute. 

“Yes you did!” Mokuba argued. “You’d have to be really stupid not to know what that ad was asking!”

The room got quiet, no one wanting to outright call Joey an idiot. Joey certainly felt like an idiot. “I found it on Indeed. I thought it was legitimate,” he mumbled.

“I can’t be here right now,” Kaiba announced.

“Big brother!” Mokuba called out as Kaiba strode out of the room.

“Kaiba!” Joey yelled out. The two of them locked eyes. “Mokuba, what in the actual fuck?”

He had the decency to look ashamed. “I was just trying to help Seto.”

Joey rolled his eyes. “And everyone calls _me_ an idiot.” He shook his head. “Listen, I think he needs some time to cool off. I’m going to get back to work, but it’s probably best if we steer clear for a while.”

“Yeah,” mumbled Mokuba. “You really didn’t know?” he asked.

“You really thought I was a prostitute?” Mokuba just shrugged, and all Joey could do was laugh before he left the office.

Getting actual work done proved to be difficult, however. The thought that anyone thought he’d be a prostitute wore at him. Mokuba hadn’t even questioned it at all. Maybe there was nothing to question. If all of the other candidates at the office the day of his interview knew what they were signing up for, then Joey hadn’t stuck out much at all.

Joey groaned in frustration, pulling at his hair. It was all so stupid. He needed someone to back him up. He made his way to Tristan’s work, glad to find him at his desk instead of on the show floor. 

“You know I have actual work I need to do,” Tristan said as Joey sat across from him at the desk.

“Read this,” Joey said, as he slid his phone over to his friend, the wanted ad still saved.

Tristan sighed but obliged. After a brief moment, he looked up. “Is this some ad from Backpage?” he said, an eyebrow raised. “Are you looking for a hooker?” He looked around. “I thought you said you were dating-” he lowered his voice, -”you know who.” 

Snatching his phone and groaning, Joey slumped back in the seat. “So it _is_ asking for a prostitute?”

“Uh, yeah, dude,” Tristan said. “It’s pretty obvious. Why?”

Joey relayed the whole story. As he was telling it, he remembered some conversations with Mokuba. That had explained why he was so weird any time they talked about his work with Kaiba or trying to get near him. Hana, sweet Hana, who had interviewed him also had to be in on it. And the woman in Human resources. How many other people had known about it?

Tristan just laughed. “Only you could end up in this kind of situation.”

“I’m glad you think it’s funny,” Joey said, arms crossed and a frown on his face.

“It _is_ funny,” Tristan replied. “Besides, it’s not like Kaiba seemed to know about it. For whatever reason, I think he’s just genuinely into you.” He shrugged. “It’s weird.”

“You’re right.” Joey sighed. “I should go talk to him. He seemed pretty pissed when he found out what Mokuba did. I don’t want him firing the other people who know either.”

“See ya,” Tristan called out as he left.

By now, Joey could drive to the Kaiba mansion with his eyes closed. The gates opened after he buzzed the intercom and the valet was unsurprised to see him. The butler greeted him with a smile. Joey hadn’t realized he’d made such an impression on everyone.

“Kaiba!” he called out. He stomped through the house, the staff letting him wander where he wanted. “Kaiba, where are ya?”

One of the doors slammed open. “Get in,” Kaiba said and Joey obliged, before Kaiba slammed the door to his room behind the two of them.

“I did _not_ know about this,” Kaiba said as he looked at Joey. “That was not at all what I had in mind when I hired you.”

“I know,” Joey said. If Kaiba had been in on it the whole time, he was sure he would have done something on day one. The fact that Kaiba had actually treated him like a personal assistant the whole time was enough for Joey to believe him.

“And obviously you didn’t know anything either,” Kaiba said, almost a question.

Joey waved off the suggestion. “Come on. I honestly thought that was a legitimate wanted ad.”

Kaiba sat on the bed and sighed. He reached out and grabbed Joey by the sleeve, pulling him close. Joey smiled and leaned down to kiss Kaiba. He stood between Kaiba’s legs and cupped his face in his hands. Kaiba wrapped his arms around Joey’s waist. His hands slid under Joey’s shirt spreading across the small of his back. Joey shivered and felt Kaiba smile under his lips.

Kaiba nipped at his lower lip. He opened his mouth and moaned as their tongues slid against each other. Kaiba’s fingers tensed against Joey’s skin and Joey grasped Kaiba’s hair in his fist. He wanted to be closer to Kaiba despite there being no barrier between them. Besides their clothes anyway.

They broke apart to catch their breaths and Kaiba scooted back on the bed before yanking Joey’s arms. Joey stopped himself from slamming on top of Kaiba, but settled in, wrapping one arm around Kaiba’s neck to bring him back in for a kiss. Joey ran his other hand along Kaiba’s side before hitching Kaiba’s leg up. Kaiba responded by wrapping his leg around Joey’s waist.

“Kaiba,” Joey breathed. Kaiba responded with a pleased hum. Joey felt Kaiba’s hands run up his sides before realizing he was trying to take his shirt off. He sucked in a breath, but sat up on his knees to pull it over his head, throwing it across the room. While he did that, Kaiba had unbuttoned his pants and slid them over Joey’s hips.

Joey made quick work of getting them off completely, kicking them off the side of the bed. Kaiba had stripped down as well and Joey took a moment to take in the sight of him. The thin silk of his boxers didn’t leave much to the imagination. He was sure he was just as hard as Kaiba was.

Kaiba moved over to Joey and resumed kissing him. Joey felt the heat of their bodies against each other. Kaiba’s skin was soft and he couldn’t help but run his hands over every bit of it he could. He rolled his hips against Kaiba’s eliciting a moan. He felt like his whole life had been leading up to this.

“Kaiba,” Joey whispered. “Do you want to--?”

“Yes,” Kaiba replied before Joey could even finish his sentence. 

He slipped his fingers in the waistband of Joey’s boxers and pulled them down. Kaiba slipped his own off and they knelt in front of each other for a moment. Joey could barely think. If someone had told him even a month ago he’d be naked in Kaiba’s bed, he would have laughed in their face. 

“I have some lube in my nightstand,” Kaiba said pointing at the table behind Joey. He quickly leaned over to pull the bottle out of the drawer. It had been opened and used before and Joey could feel the heat rise in his cheeks as he thought about the things Kaiba might have done before.

Every touch was electrifying. Joey had never felt this way before and, with Kaiba, didn’t think he’d feel this way again. Kaiba’s skin was soft; that was about the only soft thing about him. It was a welcome sensation as their bodies fit together. Joey couldn’t even tell whose gasps and moans were whose anymore. He couldn’t even think.

It ended too quickly. Joey nuzzled into Kaiba’s neck. “That was…”

“Yeah,” Kaiba said softly, wrapping an arm around Joey’s waist, their legs tangled together.

This was the first time Joey had ever been in Kaiba’s bedroom before. He was sure the sheets had a ridiculously high thread count. The mattress was the perfect balance of soft and firm. Joey thought about his old box spring. He had enough cash to get a new mattress but it had never seemed like a necessity. He had other things he could spend the money on that were more pressing. Kaiba probably didn’t think twice about buying something nice like this. 

“I should get a mattress like this,” Joey said. “How much did it run you?” he asked, knowing it was probably crass to talk about it, but wanting to think about his own budget.

“Hm,” Kaiba responded, before sitting up. He looked angry and Joey sighed. Talking about money always made people weird. “Don’t think I’m going to start buying you things just because you ask,” Kaiba said. “I’m not your sugar daddy.”

Joey sat straight up. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he yelled. “That’s not what I said!” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and started gathering his clothes and putting them on. 

“I was asking so I could figure out how much I needed to save up of my own money so I could buy it myself, you asshole.” He stomped around the room trying to find his shirt. “How could you even think I’d treat you that way?” Stupid Kaiba. 

“I actually like you, you know,” he said as he found his shirt and pulled it on. “But if you’re going to act like an asshole,” he said as he yanked open the door. “I’m quitting, so you don’t have to worry about any of your money going to me at all.” He slammed the door closed and stormed out of the mansion, ignoring the valet. If he quit Kaiba Corp, he didn’t need the company car anymore. He’d walk home. He didn’t need Kaiba for anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter to go, babes!


	7. Career Opportunities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's a guy to do when he storms out of his boyfriend's house and quits his job? Get in a scandal, of course

Two minutes after storming out of the door, Joey began to regret not taking the car. It was a cold, dark, and _far_ walk back to his apartment. It would have served Kaiba right to have to have someone pick up the car from the other side of town. Joey sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. He had no choice but to keep going. If he went back, he doubted anyone would open the gate for him, and he certainly wasn’t going to beg Kaiba for a ride home.

Joey huffed and kicked a rock on the ground. “This is all your fault, you bastard!” he yelled into the universe, hoping his rage would reach Kaiba in some way. Kaiba was the one that ruined their nice moment. Kaiba couldn’t do emotions or intimacy; of course sex would make him freak out like that. Of course that asshole wouldn’t trust Joey not to use him for money.

Joey kicked the rock again, harder this time. He didn’t need to fuck Kaiba to get money. That’s what doing all his errands and extra paperwork was for. Anyone who thought he was a sugar baby or a hooker could go to hell. Even Mokuba, who started this whole mess was just as bad. Where did that kid get off thinking of a plan like that? And then there was Tristan who pegged the ad for what it was right away.

With a heavy sigh, Joey leaned against a light pole. _He_ was the real idiot. He should have seen through everything from the beginning. He was blinded by his need for a job; he’d only considered the fact that it was working for Kaiba. Sure the ad was subtle enough to pass as legit, but he should have been able to suss it out.

A car horn startled Joey out of his thoughts. He stood up straight, expecting to be reprimanded for loitering in this nice neighborhood. Instead, when the window was rolled down a smiling, handsome face greeted him. “Need a ride?” the man asked.

The car was flashy, and the guy was wearing a nice suit. He definitely lived around here. “It’s probably out of your way,” Joey answered.

“Not if we go my way,” he replied. “Name’s Hector. What should I call you?”

Joey stared at Hector for a moment. The entire situation was off. He took in his surroundings and everything hit him like it should have with Kaiba. This Hector guy thought he was working this area. Did he just give off prostitute vibes or something?

He took a breath to tell the guy to fuck off, but what came out of his mouth was “I’m Joey.” Fuck it. If everyone thought he should be paid for sex, he might as well jump on the opportunity.

Hector unlocked the passenger door and Joey got in. “I live close, so it won’t be too long, but feel free to adjust the heated seat.” Before rolling up the window, Joey thought he saw a flash of light from nearby, but there was no time to dwell on it as they drove away.

Back at the Kaiba mansion, Seto Kaiba dealt with his own brand of regret. He’d watched Wheeler storm out of the gates without taking the car with him. “Idiot,” he’d muttered.

If Wheeler was going to quit, then Kaiba would make sure he couldn’t come grovelling back to work. He swiftly made his way to his home office, shaking away the image of Wheeler and his filet mignon stir fry. He opened his laptop and started revoking privileges. If Wheeler so much as looked at the Kaiba Corp office, security would be on him.

He’d need a new personal assistant.

He hadn’t given it much thought before, but over the past few months, the value of one was abundantly clear. The search criteria would have to be changed, to avoid anyone thinking he was looking for a sex worker. They’d have to make good coffee. Kaiba slumped in his chair and sighed.

What had he been thinking? Wheeler was no threat to him, and certainly wasn’t looking to be a kept man. He was a diligent worker and hadn’t done anything to suggest he was untrustworthy. In fact, it was Kaiba who had initiated the romantic shift in their relationship. It was Kaiba who let his own insecurities get the better of him the moment things felt too real. 

Getting Wheeler on his knees with a time limit of an hour lunch was controlled. It was one thing to touch each other, to know almost every part of each other, on the couch in his office. It was another thing entirely to be in his bed, completely vulnerable. Kaiba clicked his teeth together. So many years of creating a life with no weaknesses aside from his familial bond, and Wheeler had undone it - had undone him- in such a short few months.

No. Wheeler had been wearing away at him for years. Ever since the first day they met, and he’d extended an invitation of friendship. Kaiba hated that he still remembered the smile on Wheeler’s face before he’d cut it off with the sharp edge of his words.

A shiver ran up his spine, either with the memory of Wheeler’s touch or the visceral reaction to actually regretting how he’d treated him. He groaned. He really, really liked Wheeler. How disgusting.

Footsteps in the hallway interrupted his useless pining. A glimmer of hope that it was Wheeler back to work things out flashed through his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. Security would have alerted him to anyone returning. The only other person it could be was the other person Kaiba needed to talk to. He stood from his chair and walked down the hallway with all the aura he held when he fired an employee.

“You,” he said in a low tone, voice dripping with disappointment. This situation wouldn’t be solved by firing Mokuba, but he could stand to feel the fear of Seto Kaiba in his heart, if only for a moment.

“I can explain,” Mokuba said, scrambling to stand up straight. Kaiba held a hand up.

“The absolute unprofessionalism of your actions,” Kaiba began, “coupled with the risk to the company for having our name, our family friendly gaming company, associated with lascivious acts?” He crossed his arms. “That is absolutely unacceptable,” he said.

Mokuba had the decency to look ashamed. “I’m sorry, Seto.”

Kaiba steeled himself. Mokuba was a weakness to him, but he wouldn’t let this slide. “You’re off the ACT Project.”

That got to him. “Seto! That’s not f-”

“Not fair is going behind my back and pulling that stunt. You’ll resume being the head of projects when you can show you’re trustworthy again.” He sighed. “I’ll also be suspending Miss Monroe and Miss Takemura for two weeks as they were in on this little plan of yours.”

Mokuba looked like he was going to argue, but reconsidered after taking a look at Kaiba’s scowl. “They’re not fired, then?”

With a sigh, Kaiba softened. “No. However misguided and completely idiotic, you all had the best of intentions.” He glared again. “But I won’t give a second warning. If you pull a stunt like this again, you’ll be out of a job too.”

Mokuba bit his lip and looked up at his brother. “I understand.” He looked at Kaiba for a moment before asking another question. “This didn’t mess up anything between you and Joey, did it? You’ve been so happy lately.”

“Shit,” Kaiba mumbled. Mokuba didn’t know anything about the fight. The stupid fight caused by Kaiba’s own stupid mouth. “Can I ask your advice on something?”

Mokuba listened as his brother told him about the fight. “You know, for being a genius, you sure are an idiot.” he said.

With a laugh Kaiba ruffled Mokuba’s hair. “Yes, I really am.” His mouth set in a frown and his hand dropped to his side. “Do you think I can salvage this?”

A huge grin spread over Mokuba’s face. “Of course you can!” He patted Kaiba on the shoulder. “You and Joey have fought a lot, but you always somehow end up spending time together.” He stuck his tongue out before continuing. “And you two have gotten better at getting along. You can’t let this one setback get you down.”

“You’re right.” Kaiba nodded. “I should,” he took a deep breath. “Apologize.”

Mokuba laughed. “Don’t make it sound like a death march, big brother,” he said with a playful swat.  
“I’ll text him and see if he can meet me to talk,” he resolved, but when he picked up his phone, the notification of a text from an unknown number flashed on the screen.

When he opened it, he saw pictures of Wheeler under a street light followed by a sequence of him getting into a man’s car and sitting in a living room with candles and drinks before the curtains closed. It all looked very much like solicitation. The accompanying message set Kaiba on edge.

_Don’t know what kind of operation you’ve got at Kaiba Corp, but if you don’t want the tabloids to know you’re whoring out your employees, you better be willing to pay up_

The following text detailed a price point and place for the drop. Kaiba tightened the grip on his phone. He would not be extorted like this. He needed to fix this right away. After he spoke with Wheeler.  
Joey had made some bad decisions in his life. Somehow, things always worked out in the end. Maybe that was why he favored a gamble deck. Still, not everything could be left to fate and chance. Sometimes he needed to think before he acted. Sometimes he needed to talk to someone with a good head on their shoulders. Someone who was still willing to talk to him after he insulted her previous advice just because she was a girl.

Téa was back in New York for school, but she still made time to video chat with Joey. A true friend. Joey was grateful for her. She could snap at a moment’s notice, but she snapped with such a sense for what the core issue of the problems were that Joey didn’t even care if she would lecture him. He needed to hear Téa’s words bore into him.

He wasn’t wrong about the lecture. After Joey regaled his tale to her she immediately launched into chewing him out. “You idiot,” she began. “First of all, you started a relationship with your boss without setting clear boundaries and expectations.” She rolled her eyes. “I know it’s not romantic, but most companies will have what’s called a ‘love contract’ to avoid sexual harassment problems. You should have insisted on something like that, if only to protect yourself legally.”

“Didn’t know you were my lawyer,” Joey balked, but snapped his mouth shut when Téa glared at him.

“Second of all,” she continued, “you got in one fight with him and quit your job. You didn’t even think to talk it over with him and instead made an impulsive decision with no backup.” She scrunched her face up. 

“Third of all, you decided to get in a car with a strange man in the middle of the night because,” she pinched the bridge of her nose, “you wanted people to _stop_ thinking you were a sex worker.”

Joey sighed. “Okay when you put it that way, it sounds bad.”

“It _is_ bad!” Téa sighed heavily. “You really are an idiot, you know.”

“I know.”

A knock at his door made him drop his phone. “Shit, sorry for dropping you.”

Téa just laughed. “Hey, as long as your phone is okay.”

The knocking became more insistent and Joey groaned. “Fine, I’m coming! Keep your pants on!” He looked back at Téa’s face just as she was finishing rolling her eyes. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Remember to think before you act, Joey,” she advised before ending the call.

“Yeah, yeah,” Joey mumbled to himself as he stuffed his phone in his pocket and opened the door to see Kaiba in the doorway. Even though his stare was filled with anger, Joey couldn’t help the feeling of his heart skipping a beat. It had been less than a day and he’d _missed_ Kaiba.

“Kaiba what--?” he didn’t get a chance to finish his question before Kaiba answered by shoving his way into the apartment, phone in hand, and showing him a set of pictures that looked like a pretty damning situation on his part.

“Not even a day, no,” Kaiba grunted, “the _same night_ and you go and do this?”

Joey threw his hands up. Kaiba looked ready to kill and while Joey was fairly confident Kaiba wouldn’t hurt him, he didn’t want to give him any reason to get any angrier. Though, considering the kind of evidence in front of him, Joey knew he’d be angry, too.

“Okay, I can explain,” he said, knowing that was never a satisfactory response.

Kaiba gestured for them to sit on the couch. Joey scoffed. The nerve of Kaiba to give him permission to sit down in his own home. “Yeah, we should probably sit down for this,” he said. _Think before you act,_ Téa’s words echoed in his head. He could do that. He _had_ to do that.

“Well,” Kaiba said, tapping his foot. They’d only just sat down. Joey took a deep breath. This was not the time to fight again.

“So, it’s both as bad as it looks and not as bad as it looks,” he started.

Kaiba’s already stern expression deepened. “That doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in me,” he said, completely deadpan.

“Right, yeah, so,” he stammered. “You know how I kind of, uh, act without thinking?”

“I’m familiar.”

“Okay, yeah. So I was pissed at you.” Joey stopped. “I still am a little pissed at you. You were a real jerk, but we can talk about that after I finish explaining this.”

Kaiba nodded, an odd look on his face. Was it shame? Joey didn’t have time to dwell on that. He launched into explaining the events of the previous night, telling Kaiba all about how angry he was and how he hadn’t thought at all about getting in the car with Hector. That if everyone was going to think of him a certain way, why not just do it?

“That’s stupid,” Kaiba said.

“Like I don’t know that,” Joey replied. He’d been lectured enough about that already. “Now here’s the part where it’s not as bad as it seems.”

“Go on,” Kaiba said, looking unconvinced, but interested.

“So I get to Hector’s house and it’s nice, and he puts on some soft music and pours some fancy champagne and lights some candles: the whole shebang.”

“Do I need these details?” Kaiba asked through gritted teeth.

Joey waved his hand dismissively. “I’m setting a scene here.” He sat up straight. “So I’m there and all this is happening and I realize, wait, I can’t _actually_ go through with this, so I tell Hector the truth.”

“And what exactly was the truth?”

Joey looked down at his feet. “That I got in a fight with my boyfriend-slash-boss and quit my job as a personal assistant after finding out a bunch of people thought I was a prostitute and I got insecure about myself.”

When Joey looked back up, Kaiba was scrutinizing him. His expression was completely neutral, and Joey hated that he couldn’t read him like that. He’d prefer anger to not knowing. “And was this Hector okay with this?” He cleared his throat. “He didn’t try to go ahead with the solicitation?”

Joey laughed. “No, and wanna know the real kicker?”

Kaiba sighed but still asked, “What?”

“He offered me a job.”

_”What?” ___

__Joey shifted in his seat to better face Kaiba. “Yeah! An on-the-books, no legally ambiguous type of job.” He grinned, conspiratorially. “You see, he’s also the CEO of some accounting firm and was also looking for a personal assistant.”_ _

__“And it’s not some sort of ploy?”_ _

__Joey patted Kaiba on the shoulder. “I was thinking about that, too, you know your distrust of other people rubbed off on me.” Kaiba scoffed at that, but Joey continued. “I did some checking into his company and sent a message to Tristan for his advice on the legitimacy of the job posting.” He snorted. “Which, by the way, did not call for anyone to wear costumes.”_ _

__Kaiba folded his arms. “You did wear a costume while working for me, though.” A sound caught in his throat and he looked at Joey. “So you really did quit Kaiba Corp for good?”_ _

__Joey nodded. “I didn’t have a bad time but I just can’t work for you.”_ _

__Kaiba swallowed. “And as for our relationship?”_ _

__Joey sighed. “ _Why_ would you think I was using you for your money?”_ _

__“I didn’t,” Kaiba said. “Not really.” He looked at Joey, and Joey couldn’t help but be struck by the intensity. Kaiba’s gaze always made his heart race. He didn’t think he’d ever get sick of the way Kaiba looked at him. “Despite my best efforts, I reacted brashly without thinking. I was afraid of being hurt.” He smiled. “You’re not the only one who’s emotions get the best of him sometimes.”_ _

__“I wouldn’t hurt you,” Joey mumbled. How could Kaiba think that about him?_ _

__“Trust doesn’t come easy for me,” he said. “I was,” he paused. It was hard for Kaiba to talk about his feelings and Joey kept quiet to let him work through it. “I was afraid that I had gotten too close to someone,” he admitted._ _

__“Kaiba,” Joey started, speaking softly._ _

__Kaiba put up a hand. “I forgot that you are perhaps the most genuine person I’ve ever met.” He looked into Joey’s eyes again. “I shouldn’t doubt you. I love you and I should trust in you.”_ _

__Joey felt his heartbeat hard in his chest. He broke out in a huge smile. “You love me?”_ _

__Kaiba looked surprised. “Oh.” He considered Joey for a moment. “ I said it, didn’t I? Yes. I do love you.” He took a deep breath. “No mixed feelings about it.”_ _

__“I love you, too.”_ _

__They sat in silence for a moment. “Well, I’m not going to be extorted,” Kaiba said._ _

__“What?” Joey huffed and stood up. “I’m not trying to extort you! Didn’t we just talk about this?”_ _

__“Not you, you idiot,” Kaiba snapped. “The pictures. It has to be Blake, and I won’t let him get away with this.” He frowned. “Call up, Hector. He’s implicated in this as well.”_ _

__Joey sighed. “Right.”_ _

__The next few days were a flurry of phone calls to make sure everything was in place. Because Kaiba had not given into demands, he found that Blake had not been bluffing and the pictures hit the tabloids. Accusations of Kaiba Corp running a prostitution ring, including interviews with some of the candidates from Mokuba’s little plan were rife throughout the article. Kaiba had instructed that no interviews with the press would be done until Hector had a chance to create his own press release._ _

__Kaiba was only a little surprised that the Hector that Wheeler had met that night wasn’t just “the CEO of some accounting firm.” He was Hector Villalpando, CEO of one of the most prestigious accounting firms in the world. His company provided tax and accounting advisory services to hundreds of businesses globally. Kaiba had considered using his company’s services before ultimately deciding on internal tax employees._ _

__He couldn’t help but be a bit relieved that Wheeler hadn’t started working for someone in direct competition with Kaiba Corp. He hated to admit that it did irk him that Hector had propositioned Wheeler. Kaiba was not one who dealt well with emotions and that included jealousy. The interactions he’d seen between them were completely professional. No one would even guess that it had been less so only a few days prior. But Hector seemed a decent man and he trusted Wheeler to make his own decisions._ _

__The day of the joint press conference arrived. Kaiba and Hector stood outside the Kaiba Corp building. The press and tabloids that surrounded them was more massive than he had accounted for. He scoffed. The media were animals._ _

__“Ladies and gentlemen,” Kaiba began. “I understand that the nature of these photographs lend themselves to something of a scandal in your minds. I assure you that is not the case. An employee of mine arranged to meet with Mr. Villalpando late at night as he was looking for another job away from my company. A clandestine meeting, while suspicious-looking, was the best time they could arrange outside of work hours.”_ _

__Hector stepped up to the podium. “I had been scouting for a personal assistant for some time since my previous one had been diagnosed with cancer and stepped down from the position so that she could focus on her treatment. As an aside, City Solutions has been paying for her treatment and we wish her well.” He cleared his throat and continued. “I had my eye on Mr. Wheeler for about a month and knew I had to be careful with sniping an employee from Kaiba Corp.”_ _

__Kaiba took his turn at the podium again. “Most people are under the impression that I do not have any friends.” He tried not to wince as he continued. “That is untrue. I had hired Wheeler, in part, because we had been friends since high school.” That was true enough, despite Kaiba’s insistence that he didn’t need friendship. “He had been looking to gain more experience in office work and I found him to be the best candidate for the job despite his lack of experience._ _

__“It came to my attention later, that my job posting was worded poorly and had found its way onto some,” he cleared his throat, an act showing distaste, “disreputable websites.” He glared, giving the photographers what they wanted. “I did not intend to seek out any sex workers. I believe this as well as a recent hacking attempt to be the work of a former employee who had been fired for sexual harassment. The reason for the delay in this press release was to confirm that an extortion attempt came from this employee. That is where those salacious photos came from and I have the proof I need to bring this former employee to the proper authorities.” Kaiba smirked. “They should actually be arriving at his home any moment now.” He wished he could have seen the look on Blake’s face upon realizing he was about to be arrested._ _

__Hector stepped up again. “I am happy there are no hard feelings from Mr. Kaiba regarding Mr. Wheeler’s resignation. I know that his time at Kaiba Corp was invaluable to his personal and professional growth and it’s good to see a friendship is still intact.” Hector smiled. “And a new one formed. Kaiba Corp and City Solutions have partnered to create a program supporting financial literacy for high school students.”_ _

__At that time the press seemed to forget all about the prostitution scandal, their entire reason for gathering in the first place, and clamored for more information on this new program. Dangle something new and shiny in front of them and their object permanence for the last shiny object would be completely obliterated. Kaiba snorted._ _

__“More information will be available in the coming weeks,” he announced. “Thank you for your time.”_ _

__The two of them dismissed themselves from the podium and stole away into the building. They needed to actually develop the program beyond initial stages. This wasn’t just the chance for a press conference; it was a business meeting. Kaiba relished in efficiency._ _

__“Hey,” Hector said once they reached the conference room. “Joey’s a good guy. Treat him right.”_ _

__Kaiba scowled. He didn’t need anyone giving him relationship advice. He opened his mouth to snap at Hector, but thought the better of it. He _hadn’t_ treated Joey very well the night he met Hector. That and he didn’t want to break a business partnership before it barely began. “I know,” he said, his expression relaxing. “He’s the best man I know.”_ _

__The days’ events had worn Kaiba out. He was three employees down and everyone was pulling more weight in the company to get things arranged. Mokuba was saddled with secretary work while Miss Takemura was on suspension. The grueling work involved in that had Mokuba more frazzled than his regular work duties. Served him right._ _

__Instead of going straight home after work, he stopped in a neighborhood on the other side of town. Wheeler’s apartment really was too far away from the mansion for his liking. He knocked on the door, feeling a flutter in his chest at Wheeler’s smile upon greeting him._ _

__“I need a massage,” he said._ _

__“Hey, I don’t work for you anymore,” Wheeler retorted. “That’s not in my job description anymore.”_ _

__Kaiba quirked an eyebrow. “I don’t think it ever was.”_ _

__Wheeler stepped toward him, placing a kiss on his lips that was over too quickly. “Sit down, ya jerk.”_ _

__Kaiba complied and Wheeler began working out his sore muscles. “You really gotta stretch more at work. You are too tense.”_ _

__“I don’t need a lecture,” Kaiba scoffed._ _

__“Obviously you do.” Wheeler leaned down and kissed his forehead. “Lunch on Wednesday, right?”_ _

__Kaiba smiled. “Cleared my calendar.”_ _

__“Great. I’ll bring the coffee.”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. It's over. It's done.  
> Thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed it. And if you didn't enjoy it, I admire your committal but question your choices

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have a posting schedule, but it _is_ Leo Season, so I'm very powerful right now
> 
> You can follow me on tumblr [here](https://bufordtannen.tumblr.com)


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